Grilled Pineapple with Sweet Maple Syrup Glaze

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Grilled pineapple is the new light and delicious dessert you have been looking for! Maple syrup, brown sugar, and salted butter combine to make a mouthwatering glaze on fresh pineapple that is to die for. Once you add a little smoky goodness from grilling it on the BBQ, it’s perfection!

This sweet treat also doesn’t have to be saved for dessert, make this as a side with my grilled teriyaki chicken, chicken breasts made with my BBQ chicken marinade, or my baked teriyaki chicken. (I am definitely hinting that this goes great with chicken dishes!)

Perfectly Sweet & Smoky Grilled Pineapple

If you love pineapple, you have to try this recipe this summer! This was a hit with my son and I, Mr Magpie ate a piece (he doesn’t even like pineapple but grudingly admitted that it was pretty good. For pineapple.) and my daughter didn’t touch it, of course. This is something that I would serve up when hosting guests for a casual BBQ on a nice hot summer day.

How To Cut Pineapple

Pineapple isn’t always the easiest to cut and you have two choices here. Spears will allow you to take out the core of the pineapple before you eat it, but they can fall apart on the grill. Circles will stay together on the grill but then you have to eat around the core. The choice is up to you!

1. Lay the pineapple on it’s side on a cutting board.
2. Slice off the top and the bottom of the pineapple.
3. Stand the pineapple up on the cut bottom on the cutting board.
4. Slice the pineapple skin off, getting as close as you can to getting the little “eyes” out as possible, but not wasting the fruit.
5. Take the end of the knife and cut the eyes out (the little remaining spots of skin that are indented)
6. For slices, lay the pineapple on it’s side again, and slice into rings of desired thickness. Remove the core with a knife or a small biscuit cutter.
7. For spears, cut the pineapple in half. Take each half and slice it into three equal pieces. Remove the core from each piece with a knife.

Pineapple Glaze Ingredients

This is a really easy glaze to mix up, and trust me when I say that adding a little heat to it makes all the difference! Feel free to play around with this recipe as you see fit! The main ingredients are:

• brown sugar – this helps the outside of the pineapple carmelize
• salted butter  – the butter gives this a nice richness and you MUST have the salt it makes all the difference taste-wise
• maple syrup – my little Canadian secret to everything 😉
• cinnamon – the perfect addition that makes this taste like a dessert!
• red pepper flakes – sweet heat is the best!

How to Grill Pineapple

This is the easiest thing I’ve ever BBQ’d!

• Prepare your pineapple
• Mix together the marinade
• Combine the marinade and the pineapple in a large sealing plastic freezer bag
• Marinate for 1-2 hours
• Grill on the BBQ until done
• Serve and enjoy!

Pineapple’s Bromelain Enzyme & Sore Stomachs

It’s extremely common for people not to be able to eat raw pineapple, and I am one of them! If you get terrible stomach aches when you eat raw pineapple, the culprit is the enzyme named bromelain, however luckily for us pineapple lovers if you cook or heat the pineapple up, it destroys the enzyme and we get to enjoy it! I ate 4 spears all by myself and was totally fine. Just make sure that you cook the pineapple until really hot, and really soft! This is, of course, a personal choice, if you have a pineapple allergy, don’t eat it!

What to Serve With Grilled Pineapple

This is a fantastic side dish or an appetizer (simply cut it into pieces and serve with toothpicks!) any time of year, but it really is perfect for the summer!

• summer picnic ham
• steaks done with our fabulous steak marinade
• try a grilled rib eye steak
• make beef kabobs

Cocktails to Use Grilled Pineapple With

You can also use it as an edible garnish on one of our fantastic cocktail recipes!  Since I can’t actually have the raw pineapple, this makes for the PERFECT alternative!! Grill it up and then place it into the freezer. Slice it frozen and use it as a wedge garnish instead of raw!

• The Blue Hawaiian Cocktail
• The Pina Colada Cocktail
• Pineapple Prosecco Punch
• Pineapple Mango Margarita

I am not even kidding, I am eating this ALL SUMMER. It’s light, it’s refreshing, it’s an incredible healthy choice and with that said, I’m going to eat it over vanilla ice cream LOL! Seriously, that is happening. Hot diced grilled pineapple placed on top of a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Holy. Dinah. If you want to make it dairy free you can skip the butter, fool around with the recipe as you see fit!

Happy cooking!

Love,

Karlynn