Pineapple Lumps

Round three… gear up.

This week we are headed down under to New Zealand. Now before I dive into this week’s treat, I have a confession.

I. Love. Pineapple. Pineapple at Pollock dining common, pineapple on pizza (yes, I am a Hawaiian Pizza supporter), Pina colada popsicles, dried pineapple, you get the point. My boyfriend laughs at me for my love of pineapple. I also love chocolate. You’re probably thinking by now, hey Matt, I know this is a passion blog, but you just mentioning food you like isn’t all that interesting. I get it, but imagine you’re me who loves pineapple and chocolate. Now put the two together, get a Ratatouille moment and you got yourself some pineapple lumps.

A true pineapple lump is more than chocolate-dipped pineapple, but more like a York Peppermint Patties with a pineapple center instead of mint. Created in the mid-1950’s, the task was given to chef Charles Diver to create a candy (or “lollies” to the New Zealanders) that used waste products (leftovers).

This week’s recipe only has six ingredients: marshmallows, water, icing sugar (also known as powdered sugar), pineapple flavoring, yellow food dye, and milk chocolate melts. I bet that if you are against artificial coloring, you can cut the yellow food dye, without sacrificing taste.

The start of the recipe reminds me of making homemade rice krispies, by melting marshmallows and water together. This forms the base for the center of the pineapple lump. Then add in icing sugar to keep the stickiness under control. Knead in the rest of the icing sugar until you get a malleable dough that doesn’t stick to the countertops or your hands. As the dough comes together, add in the pineapple flavoring and the food coloring to suit your taste.

Roll the dough out to a finger’s length and cut into rectangles if you are going for the look of the store-bought variety. You can mix this up by cutting the dough into other shapes, such as stars during the Holiday season.

The final step is to melt and dip the lumps in chocolate. The food scientist inside me is making me tell you to be careful: if the chocolate you choose has cocoa butter in it, you need to do a process called tempering chocolate. This process heats and cools chocolate to create a more stable product at room temperature. If you use candy melts (or a chocolate with vegetable oils/fats) you can go right ahead and don’t need to worry about tempering.

Once the chocolate is melted, let it cool a little but don’t let it start to set. You want to be able to dip the pineapple lumps without them melting. Although I haven’t made this specific recipe, my experience shows that using two forks is a good method. Fingers also work.

I’ve never been outside the country, but I do want to explore the world. In addition to Brazil and Canada, New Zealand is now on my list so I can have authentic pineapple lumps. All in all, they remind me of a Mallo Cup, like a Reeses’ cup with a marshmallow center, and I can’t wait to try them.

One thought on “Pineapple Lumps

  1. Hey Matt,

    Love the blog. I can tell how excited you are about stuff like this. I’m not one who eats pineapple much. I like it however it’s not really my go to fruit. I’d be interested in trying these. I’m curious to see how chocolate and pineapple flavoring would pair together. I know you mentioned milk chocolate but I was wondering how dark chocolate would work with it as it would create more of a contrast with the sweetness of the pineapple flavoring. I would also love to go to New Zealand, mostly for the sick accents.

    Roan

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