If you like Pina Coladas...

This dessert i tried for my dad's birthday. Since i really like Pina Colada the thought of having it for dessert was very appealing. The recipe sounded fairly easy too and i had most of the ingredients at home anyway. I also wanted to try it because it looked like a fairly nice dessert for my 'perfect dinner'. Unfortunately i made too little of everything so each of us only got a little bowl of it in the end, but what i ate convinced me. It really does taste like Pina Colada and the caramelised coconut flakes made a nice cruncy addition to the whole thing. Maybe i slightly burned them a little, they were a bit too dark, so i've got to be careful next time.
Sorry for the picture, by the way, it's not properly set up, but my family was hungry. ^^
Here's my conclusion:

Preperation: 9/10. You can prepare the pineapples, the caramel and the cream, you just need to assemble it before eating
Taste: 8/10. I'd like to give a 10, but because of the caramel and the little bit i had, i have to take 1 point away and i'm not so much into canned fruits. But if i use fresh ones it'd make the cream go sour.

Here's the slightly adapted recipe:
from "Essen&trinken, Für jeden Tag, no. 11/09"

Pina Colada dessert
250 ml canned coconut milk
2 Tablespoons vanilla flavoured custard powder
3 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons rubbed of zest of an untreated lime
4 Tablespoons icing sugar
5 1/2 Tablespoons coconut flakes
125 ml cream
220 g pineapple rings
4 Tablespoons white rum

1. Take 4 tablespoons of the coconut milk and mix it with the custard powder in a little bowl. Pour the rest of the coconut milk, the sugar and the lemon zest into a pot and boil it up. Remove it from the stove and stir in the custard powder. Reboil it again for a short time.
2. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and cover it with gladwrap. Put the gladwrap directly onto the mixture to prevent it from developing a skin. Let it cool completley in the fridge.
3. Spread the icing sugar evenly into a pan and wait until it starts to melt. Add the coconut flakes and caramelise them. When they are done, immediately put them onto a plate to stop them from burning and let them cool off. Careful if you want to taste the hot coconut flakes, they are REALLY hot.
4. Whip the cream. Put the pineapple rings into a sieve and let the liquid drip off. You can put a bowl underneath the sieve so you can drink the pineapple juice, it's really nice. Cut the rings into equal bits. Mix the coconut custard with the rum very throughoutly, using a hand whisk. Fold in the whipped cream. Layer the Coconut custard, the pineapple pieces and the coconut flakes into four glasses or slender bowl. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.

Hello and welcome to everyone who found their way to this very new blog. I hope you can enjoy reading through the hopefully various entries I'd like to upload in the next days, weeks, maybe years. My first project will be presenting you a different range of desserts. In order to understand why, i need to tell you what some friends of mine and I are planning. Here in Germany, where i live, exists this TV show called "Das perfekte Dinner" - The perfect dinner. Each of us four will be cooking for the other three persons one night a three course meal, consisting of appetizer (probably a salad, or a soup), an entrée (everything is allowed) and the Crowning discipline and my favourite one: the dessert.
The first dinner will be at November 27th and then take place every friday in December until Christmas.
Until now, i still have no idea what to cook, but the clock is ticking. I'm really excited about cooking a three course meal but of course, i want it to be perfect.
Now here's the thing. Until I haven't figured out what to do, I'll just try various recipes I come across and will tell you about how i liked it.
The tricky thing about this dinner is, and cooking in general, the timing has to match. I don't want my guest to wait three hours for a casserole. :)

Alrighty. Here already comes dish #1, chicken sweet and sour. The recipe i got from a cookbook that belongs to a friend of mine. I've tried that a couple of times already for it is easy and fast to cook and the texture and taste of the gravy always amazes me. It tastes really intense and it really doesn't matter if you use a bit too much of the single ingredients, because it'll still taste nice. Plus: you usually have most of the required ingredients already in your pantry, so it's perfect if you want to cook it last minute.

Preparation: 4/10. You can cut the capsicum and the chicken and keep it in the fridge for a couple of hours if you want and messure everything but the rice has to be cooked just before you want to serve it plus the chicken has to be fried.
Taste: 10/10. It's easy and really delicious every time i make it. Plus you can vary it like using pineapple instead of bell peppers.