I usually like to taste new dessert recipes before I serve them to other people. There's nothing worse than dishing up a beautiful apple crisp that turns out to be bland and watery, or handing someone a macaroon that has extra salt. (To this day I have no idea how those cookies got so salty.)
Some desserts are a little harder than others to taste test. It's really difficult to disguise an entire missing slice of pie or half-eaten cake. (If you have tricks on how to do this, please let me know.) Luckily I'm usually baking dessert for Sunday dinner with my brother's family and they're okay with overlooking things like this. Sometimes I even wonder if my nephew thinks it is normal for a finished cake to have a piece missing.
Last Sunday when I made this dessert, I really wanted to try a piece of the angel food cake grilled. I had eaten the fruit salad part of the dessert before and knew I loved it. What's not to love about some of the best fruits in the world sweetened with some honey and a touch of mint? The juice they release after being combined with the honey is delicious, and perfect for soaking up with some angel food cake. But how would that angel food cake taste grilled? I couldn't get the idea out of my mind, so finally I just broke down and gave it a try, thinking that an entire angel food cake was more than enough for four adults and two children. I even tried grilling a couple pieces, just to make sure I didn't burn one. And then I just had to pile a bunch of the fruit salad on top with some whipped cream, and of course, I had to eat it all, too, just to make sure it still tasted okay. Then I packed up the rest of the angel food cake, fruit salad and whipped cream and we headed over to my brother's house.
When we got to my brother's house, his mother-in-law answered the door. She was there with my sister-in-law's sister and husband. What do you do when you realize you've brought a half-eaten dessert over to share with twice the people you were expecting? You start to laugh, pull out the angel food cake with a giant section missing and tell everyone about what you did. It's a good thing they're not fussy people. Nobody really minded, and even though I had left a good portion of the angel food cake at home (and in my stomach) when dessert time came around there was plenty for everyone. The only bad thing was that I was so preoccupied with making sure we had enough portions that I forgot to grill the angel food cake for them. So if you see any of them, don't tell them it tastes completely delicious grilled. They just had to be content with the un-grilled version, which was pretty delicious too.
Honey Fruit Salad with Grilled Angel Food Cake
Ingredients:
Fruit Salad:
1 mango
1 cup strawberries
2 kiwis
1 banana
2 navel oranges
3 tablespoons honey
3 to 5 sprigs fresh mint
1 cup raspberries or blueberries
1 Angel Food Cake
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 T sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Peel and dicethe mangoand put in a medium bowl. Trim the strawberries' stems and half or quarter, if large. Add to the bowl of fruit. Peel and dice the kiwi, add to bowl. Peeland slice the bananas, add to bowl.
Cut the top and bottom off the oranges just deep enough to expose the inner fruit. Following the curve of the fruit cut the skinand pithoff the orange in panels. (Like described for a grapefruit here.) Holding the orangover the bowl cut between the membranes to free the citrus segments. Let them fall into the bowl as they are cut free. By hand, squeeze all the juice from the remaining membrane over the fruit, then discard. Repeat with the other orange.
Lightly stir the honeyinto the fruit. Strip the mint leaves off the stem, tear, or chopinto smaller pieces, and stir into the fruit salad. Add the berries and set aside for 10 minutes or up to 2 hours.
Serving:
Slice angel food cake into 1 1/2 inch pieces and grill over medium heat until just beginning to brown. Turn and repeat on the other side.
Whip cream, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until it begins to get frothy. Increase the speed to high and whip until stiff peaks form.
Arrange angel food cake slices on plates or in bowls and top with fruit salad mixture. Add a dollop of whipped cream and serve.
Recipe Source: Fruit salad adapted from foodnetwork.com
Posted in: Dessert
