The best bet for grilling dessert is fresh fruit. The high, intense heat of the grill is perfect for heating small pieces of fruit. The heat will caramelize the sugars on the fruit, heat it through and give you something that just tastes better. For example, start with pineapple slices. Throw them on the grill over a high direct heat for about one to two minutes per side. You want the surface to brown, but not burn. Take them directly from the grill, place on a plate and top with a scoop of ice cream. That’s a great dessert in about five minutes.
Now you can take if up a notch or two. Take the pineapple slices and soak them in a mixture of rum, brown sugar, butter, lemon juice and cinnamon. Drop them on the grill. The alcohol in the rum will cause them to flare-up. That’s okay, just watch your eyebrows. The heat from the grill will push the flavors into the pineapple. Let them grill until the alcohol is burned off and the surface is brown and shiny. Put them on the plate and top with ice cream, chopped nuts, chocolate sauce, etc. Now that’s a dessert.
Okay, before you start grilling up your next dessert there are a couple of things you need to know. First of all if you have just finished off a pile of burgers you don’t want to be throwing fresh fruit on the grate. You need to make sure that your grill is clean and oiled before you start dessert. Rib-eye may not be the best flavoring for your grilled peaches.
Second of all, most things that you would want to grill for dessert can burn quickly. Fruits contain sugars that will burn at temperatures of 265 degrees F. While you want the grill to be plenty hot you don’t want fruit to sit on the grill for more than a few minutes, especially your moister fruits like pineapple and citrus. Peaches and apples will take a little longer to burn, but don’t test it out. Also, if you soak peaches in wine, pineapple in rum or bananas in tequila you need to be careful about the flash flame. Once alcohol is heated and combusted it burns real good, so keep your distance and keep your eyebrows. Also make sure that you let these soaked goodies drip dry for a minute before they hit the grill. No point in pouring perfectly good whiskey into the fire.
Third, keep it simple. Grilled desserts shouldn’t keep you from your family or guests. Most recipes are quick and easy. After all you don’t want people waiting for an hour while you grill up dessert. It also works best if you can grill and serve. You want to get hot grilled items to the table fast. Like with the pineapple sundae above, you want the pineapple to still be hot when you take that first bite.
Lastly, get everything ready early. Make up as much of your grilled dessert beforehand so you are free to do other things. Fruits can soak in their mixtures in the refrigerator for hours before they hit the grill. In fact it works better that way. Have everything ready and you won’t have to spend much time at all preparing dessert and you can have plenty of time to enjoy it.
