Comments range from ‘I really like it’ to ‘it’s edible’
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A few weeks ago I was having lunch with my friends Chris and Mary, and Mary told me she’d renewed the subscription to Prevention magazine that has been her annual gift to me.
“You still like to use the recipes, don’t you?” she asked.
“Oh, yes,” I said.
“It’s been a while since you used one in a column,” Chris pointed out.
Soon after that conversation, the January issue arrived and I was determined to use a recipe in the Times Leader test kitchen.
Strawberry Thyme Millet Bowl? Hmm. That one’s supposed to fight inflammation.
Savory Yogurt Parfait? That one, with bulgur, beets and basil, is supposed to fight bad breath.
Ah, but here was the winner: Hot-Honey Broiled Pineapple Toast! I already had (almost) all of the ingredients for this one, and it sounded so easy. Also, the magazine said, the pineapple provides vitamin C, manganese, zinc and B vitamins while cottage cheese has calcium and selenium. So it would be good for us.
Taste tester and columnist Bill O’Boyle agreed with that assessment.
“It’s definitely a healthier alternative to some of the things I’ve eaten,” he said, explaining he liked the pineapple toast overall but found it somewhat bland.
“It seems like a nice healthy snack,” Weekender entertainment writer Gaby Lang said. “I like it.”
“I really like it, but I would try a different kind of bread,” news editor Roger DuPuis said, suggesting “a crusty roll or maybe a bagel.”
“For me the cottage cheese was the dominant flavor, rather than the pineapple,” Roger continued. “And I happen to like both.”
As for sports reporter Kevin Carroll, trying this test kitchen offering confirmed for him that he’s not a fan of whole wheat bread or cottage cheese, but he seemed to like the pineapple better than he’d expected to. Overall, he said of his sample, “It’s edible. I’m going to finish it.”
Reporter Margaret Roarty liked the pineapple and cottage cheese, said she’d already known they complement each other, but added “the bread kind of threw me off.”
But for reporter Hannah Simerson, the pineapple was a problem. “If you took that off,” she said, “I could eat the cheese and bread every day.”
My husband and fellow test cook Mark liked the contrasting textures of the three main ingredients, but suggested pineapple rings might have been easier to eat than pineapple chunks. He also would have broiled the pineapple longer, which might have given it more eye appeal.
Mark was the first to hear my explanation of how the recipe calls for “hot honey” and rather than buy a bottle of “hot honey” I had tried to make my own version by heating 1 cup of regular honey in a saucepan with a spoonful of red pepper flakes so the flavor would infuse. Then I put the honey through a strainer to remove the flakes.
Sigh. I guess I didn’t leave the flakes and honey together long enough, because no one detected any “hot” flavor at all.
“That would have added more zing,” I admitted.
“It would’ve added a little depth,” reporter Jen Learn-Andes agreed. But, she said,, she enjoyed her sample and thinks it would be a nice breakfast or lunch item to serve to guests. And for guests, she said, she’d rather use plain honey and let them add their own heat.
Here’s the recipe from the January 2024 Prevention magazine, with thanks to my friend Mary for the subscription.
Hot-Honey Broiled Pineapple Toast
(for one serving)
1 slice whole-grain bread
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/3 cup fresh (I used canned) pineapple chunks
1 teaspoon hot honey, plus more for serving
3 tablespoons cottage cheese
Aleppo pepper, for sprinkling
1. Place oven rack on highest level and heat broiler. Broil bread until toasted, about 1 minute.
2. Meanwhile, grease small rimmed baking sheet with oil. Place pineapple chunks on prepared sheet, drizzle with hot honey and toss to combine. Arrange in single layer and broil 1 1/2 minutes. Toss and continue broiling until golden brown, 1 1/2 minutes more.
3. Top toast with cottage cheese and spoon pineapple on top. Drizzle with additional hot honey and sprinkle with Aleppo pepper if desired.