We booked our honeymoon! Guess where we're going? I'll give you a few hints.
It's a tropical paradise full of palm trees, coconuts, pineapples, shaved ice, ukelele music, waterfalls, beaches, coconuts, pineapples, and shaved ice. Did I mention coconuts, pineapples, and shaved ice?
Hawaii! Did you guess right? We're going to the island of Kauai, and I am stoooooookkkked. We went to Maui a hundred years ago (in 2008… ack!) and loved it a ton. For honeymoonin, we considered knocking out a bucket list destination like Vietnam or France, but in the end, we decided on good ol' Hawaii, for a few reasons. First off, for us west-coasters, that tropical palm-treed paradise is just a hop and skip away. A quick little flight. Which means less time in a plane/train/taxi-cab, and more time on a beach/hammock/surf board.
Second, we aren't even tryiiin to get travel stress on our h-moon. Don't get me wrong, we love traveling to new, foreign places. But, you have to admit, there's always at least one currency/customs/language/map-reading stressor that comes up in a new country. And normally, I'm all about navigating those waters, but after 10 months of wedding planning, the last thing I want to do is run out of lempira and not have an ATM or credit card machine in site (like happened in Honduras), or get lost in the middle of the night in the pouring rain in Brugge because oh-my-god-i-thought-that-was-the-castle-by-our-hotel, but-every-mother-effing-corner-has-an-identical-castle. You know. Nothing major, but things I don't want to think about on my honeymoon.
You know what I want to do on my honeymoon? Oh, and Evan's honeymoon? (Aside from that, perverts). I want to relax. I want to be holding a drink in my hand non-stop. I want to lay on the beach, with my husband (!) by my side. I want the option of doing absolutely nothing all day and not feeling guilty about. But. BUT! If we do want to adventure, Kauai is full of hikes and waterfalls and places where Elvis filmed movies. I think we're gonna have a really swell time. I think we're also going to consume a LOT of shaved ice.
Which brings me to this dessert! I was inspired by a few recipes for this, and by Hawaii! Christina from Dessert for Two posted this coconut snow the other day, and I just couldn't get it outta my head. It's basically just semi-frozen coconut milk, granita style. She served hers with chocolate sauce, which looks so rich and good, but with Hawaii thoughts swirling in my mind, I wanted something tropical! Another recipe that been's in and out of my dreams is this roasted pineapple popsicle. So naturally, I decided to combine the coconut granita magic with roasted pineapple. And not just any roasted pineapple… roasted pineapple sauce! And then, since the coconut snow and roasted pineapple sauce was sort of reminiscent of classic ice cream sundaes (remember that pineapple sauce!?) I threw some cherries on top. And some black sesame seeds, for good measure.
Coconut shaved ice! Roasted pineapple sauce! Go ahead, you can pretend you're on my honeymoon. Oh wait, is that creepy?
Coconut Shaved Ice Sundae with Roasted Pineapple Sauce
Makes 2 sundaes
This is a simple recipe, but you do need to scrape the coconut snow every half hour for 2-2.5 hours, so keep that in mind. You may have extra pineapple sauce, but it's delicious on ice cream, yogurt, oatmeal, with a spoon, in a box with a fox, you name it.
1 can coconut milk (full fat)
Juice from 1 lime
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water
1 pineapple
3 tablespoons brown sugar
Pinch sea salt
Cherries, pitted
Black sesame seeds
First, get your coconut snow in the freezer:
In a bowl, whisk together coconut milk, lime juice, honey, and water until smooth and combined. Pour into a shallow, freezer-proof dish (I used an 8 inch cake pan), and pop into freezer. After 30 minutes, scrape it all over with a fork to stop from freezing solid. Repeat this every 30 minutes for around 2-2.5 hours.
While coconut snow is in the freezer, make pineapple sauce:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel one whole pineapple, and cut into bite-sized chunks (feel free to save out a few wedges for the sundaes). Add to a baking dish (smaller, not a full baking sheet, it's ok if the pieces overlap), and top with brown sugar and a pinch or two of sea salt. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Pineapple should be super soft, and there should be a bit of liquid in the pan. Let come to room temperature, then add pineapple and any extra liquid in pan to a blender, and blend until smooth. If it's too thick, you can add a splash of water.
Assemble the sundae:
In a glass or bowl, fill halfway with coconut snow, add a small layer of pineapple sauce, fill the rest of the way with coconut snow, then top with more pineapple sauce, cherries, and black sesame seeds. Dig in!
Coconut Snow from this recipe
Roasted Pineapple Sauce inspired by these pops
