Pineapple Heaven: A Family Affair

photo by Kevin Keeker

Early in the brainstorming for the Fruit Basket flavors, Kate and I were really interested in using pineapple. But despite our initial optimism, plain pineapple lollipops didn’t really impress our taste testers:

A bit boring and simple – Justine
Good base, but much simpler than I'm used to from This Charming Candy – Bill

In the first couple of tasting rounds, I tried adjusting the acidity to make the lollipop more sour, but it still wasn’t getting the kind of enthusiastic response we wanted. And then I suddenly had a fantastic brainstorm: my beloved great-aunts in Pennsylvania make a dessert they call “Pineapple Heaven”. Its origins are cloaked in mystery (or maybe their older sister invented it). It is a humble layered concoction of:

• mini marshmallows, soaked in
• canned crushed pineapple, topped with
• fresh, thinly sliced banana, sprinkled with
• walnut pieces, dolloped with
• whipped cream

So good! I grabbed my banana and marshmallow flavors and took a first guess at a good proportion of those three ingredients. I don’t want to brag, except I actually do: Pineapple Heaven rocketed to the top of the charts – it was the most popular flavor in the next round of tasting, which was already a narrowed field after we eliminated several other underperforming flavors. It was a good reminder that we should stay true to our habit of creating signature flavor blends. They’re usually yummier than single-flavors.

So here’s to Pineapple Heaven – and here’s to my beautiful great-aunts and their charming & inspiring dessert. I highly recommend that you make the real thing sometime, by the way.