Soaked hibiscus flowers, coconut chips, and dried pineapple flowers are common garnishes in Asian cocktail bars. They're perfect to finish off tropical drinks.
The best thing is that it's surprisingly easy to make these flowers out of fresh pineapple. You simply slice fresh pineapple, bake the slices in the oven, and shape them into a pretty flower form.
This edible garnish is one of the easiest ways to make your next cocktail fancy.
How to Make Pineapple Flowers
The easiest way to make these edible pineapple slices is by using an oven or food dehydrator. The process is similar to making other dehydrated garnishes, like dried citrus fruit. As an oven is available in most households, our guide does focus on that.
- Step 1: Preheat - Preheat your oven to 200°F (or 100°C).
- Step 2: Prepare the fruit - Remove the top and bottom parts of the pineapple. Also, remove the rind and get rid of the seeds.
- Step 3: Slice - Cut the fresh fruit into paper into paper-thin slices. Ideally, you can see through them. The best way to do it is using a mandolin slicer, but you can also cut them with a knife. -The latter requires more skill.
- Step 4: Dry - Pat dry the slices with paper towels on both sides before putting them in your oven to dry.
- Step 5: Oven - Now place the dried slices onto a parchment-lined baking tray or wire racks. Bake them for 40 - 45 minutes, turn them, and bake again for about 35 minutes.
- Step 6: Shaping - This step is optional. You can place the warm and dried pineapple slices into muffin forms to form them into a more realistic flower shape.
Ingredients & Equipment
All you need to make these pretty flowers is one fresh fruit, usually available throughout the year in pretty decent quality. Besides, you don't necessarily need any special equipment but some things could make your life a bit easier.
- Fresh pineapple: Don't use canned ones since this won't work and will only turn your kitchen into a mess. Instead, choose a fresh, whole, and ripe pineapple. The skin should still be firm but also slightly soft when squeezing it.
- Mandoline slicer: This will help you make a ton of perfectly cut pineapple slices in seconds. If you don't have one, use a sharp knife to cut thin slices manually.
- Paring knife: This will make your life a lot easier when removing pineapple eyes and trimming the edges of pineapple slices. If you don't have one, use a utility knife instead.
- Muffin tray: To shape the pineapple slices into pretty flowers you will need a muffin tray.
- Baking sheet and parchment paper: parchment paper will help to prevent your pineapple slices from sticking to the baking tray.
To prepare the pineapple slices for drying in the oven, you can pat dry them with paper towels. This will speed up the baking process and you can see the final results sooner.
About the garnish
If you follow the steps in our pineapple flowers recipe, these pretty garnishes are easy to make. And the best part is that you don't need special equipment to make them.
They're excellent garnishes due to many reasons:
- Unique - Dried pineapple garnishes are still not that common. So using them to decorate a drink makes your drink stand out.
- Easy - You only need about 10 minutes of preparation before the slices go into the oven. That's it.
- Versatile - You can use these pineapple garnishes in any drink, be it a cocktail or mocktail. You could even use them to garnish desserts, cakes, or every other food.
Related Articles
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- Decorate your cocktails with flowers and petals
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Equipment
- 1 Mandolin slicer
Ingredients
- 1 Fresh pineapple
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200°F or 100°C.
- Cut off the bottom and top parts of the pineapple. Also, remove the rind and seeds.
- Cut the pineapple into thin slices. The best way to do this is by using a mandolin slicer. If you don't have one, use a sharp knife instead.
- Dry the slices with a paper towel to remove excess moisture in the fruit.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper and place the pineapple slices onto the paper. Make sure they don't touch or overlap.
- Bake or dry the pineapple flowers for 40 minutes, then turn them.
- Bake again for 35 minutes, and your slices should be completely dry. If they still feel juicy, pop them back in for another 15 to 20 minutes.
- Optionally, put the warm and dried pineapple slices into muffin forms to shape them.
- Store your dried and edible garnish in an airtight container.