Jamaican Stained Glass was what I decided to call the simple dish I took to a friend’s party this afternoon. I prepared a dish with a sprinkling of granulated sugar and put in a single layer of pieces sliced from a pineapple, about 1cm thick and with each piece divided into six roughly equal triangles. Meanwhile I gently heated more sugar in a saucepan until it melted to a caramel; once ready, I poured it over the top of the pineapple pieces, which created an effect like a mosaic of stained glass.

Initially I was worried about it sticking too hard so used a couple of flat knives to break the pieces apart before the caramel set up. However, either granulated sugar doesn’t work properly for caramel or the acid in the pineapple caused a reaction; by the time pudding was served at the party, a lot of the caramel had melted into a sugary sauce. It didn’t matter though as some of the stained glass fragments remained and the pouring sauce worked well both with this and also mixed in with the fruit salads on offer.