I’ve lost count of the times, over the years, I’ve thrown puff pastry on to, around, or underneath something. It never fails to make a quick and easy meal or dessert, far greater than the sum of its parts. The hard work’s done – the pastry. It will look mildly fancy NO MATTER WHAT.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Ready made sheets of puff pastry are the lazy cook’s best friend.

This recipe is a tribute to puff pastry, and also to all the tins of pineapple slices that somehow congregate in my pantry – in other words, a dessert made with pantry staples. If the pineapple slices are not waiting to be put on pizza (ahhh, look at me opening a tin of controversy, comment below 😉), they can be put to good use as a last-minute pineapple puff pastry dessert.

And …. then I fell down an internet hole on the history of the pineapple. If you’re interested, here’s the article, including a painting of Charles II who commissioned a portrait of himself (c. 1675-80) being presented with a pineapple, a major status symbol at the time. Charles nicknamed the fruit King Pine, and used a pineapple as a table centrepiece during tense negotiations with the French to show them who was boss. I love that for him!

Back to dessert. I also had some sultanas, so threw them in for fun. But I could just as easily have thrown in almond slivers or glacé cherries. After all, this is the same vibe as a pineapple upside-down cake, but without the cake. It looks a bit flat and uninteresting in the pan, but, believe me, it is the business, taste-wise. You could say it’s fit for a king.

“[It is] the most beautiful of any fruits I have seen. I do not suppose there is in the whole world any other of so exquisite and lovely appearance.”
-Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdes, 1478-1557
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/04/25/the-strange-history-of-the-king-pine/

Ingredients

60 g butter, plus extra
60 g caster sugar or brown sugar or a combination
1 x 430g tin pineapple slices
2 sheets frozen puff pastry
other fruit if you like

Instructions

Preheat oven to 210℃ / 410℉.
Defrost puff pastry sheets. Prick both several times with fork.
Melt butter over low heat in saucepan. Add sugar and stir until well combined.
Put butter/sugar mix into the base of a pre-greased 25cm round baking dish. Arrange drained pineapple slices in the sugar mix. Add in any other fruit you wish.
Lay puff pastry sheet over the fruit, pressing in well on top and at the sides. Scatter a few dollops of butter on top of the pastry, before laying the second pastry sheet on top and tucking that in well too, so that the pastry forms a shell over the fruit.
Bake in middle shelf in oven 25-30 minutes or until pastry is golden and crisp.
To serve, slice and upturn into bowl, and drizzle over sugar sauce. Serve with ice cream or cream.

Hello!

Last Minute Pineapple Puff Pastry Dessert