Chrissy Makes Rum Coconut Sundaes

I love rum-soaked fruit

because it's something that I pretty much grew up on.

And no, I wasn't eating rum-soaked fruit out of the womb.

That's not how it works.

[upbeat music]

I'm a hands-on type of lady.

That doesn't sound right. [laughs]

Today I'm gonna show you

how to make a beautiful red berry sundae,

utilizing rum-soak fruit that's in season.

I'm enjoying this.

This is good.

This dessert is very vibrant.

It's fresh, it's delicious.

It's juicy.

I can't wait to make this and show you guys how to make it.

It's so simple.

It comes together very quickly.

It's gonna be a hit.

[chill music]

The first thing I'm gonna do is just remove the stems

of the strawberries.

So I'm just de-stemming it so that I waste

as little of the berry as possible.

I am just using fresh strawberries and raspberries

because I think that they complement each other very well.

You know, the sweetness of the strawberries

balances out well with the slight tartness

of the raspberries

and comes together really nicely in the rum.

You could also soak pineapple in rum.

Blueberries are also great.

Any berries, really.

But these are two of my favorites

so that's what we're using today.

Clearly organic, because we've got these tiny babies.

That's how you know it's real. [laughs]

There's variety.

These are small, so for the smaller ones,

I'm just gonna halve them rather than quarter them.

But if they're very large, I'll quarter them.

And I want some of those larger pieces

just because it'll plate really beautifully at the end.

But mostly going in for the quartered berries

and we're gonna mash them up gently.

You can soak any fruit in any flavorful liquid.

And what it does is it draws out the natural juices

of the strawberries or whatever the host is.

Now that I've made a mess,

I'm gonna continue to make a mess. [laughs]

And we're gonna add our raspberries to this mix.

This'll make a half million sundaes [laughs]

if we're being honest.

The more the merrier, right?

I'm just taking a third cup of sugar.

That didn't work out how I planned,

but you know, that's fine.

We're gonna mix it all up together anyways.

We're gonna do a pinch of salt

and a quarter cup of rum

to really get these berries going

and those juices kind of activated.

In a lot of Jamaican desserts,

they actually soak fruits for a long period of time in rum

and sometimes like Red Label Wine

and it really just gives a really nice, full character

to the fruit.

Again, it's the liquid that draws the natural juices

out of the fruit

and will create this delicious, light, syrupy goodness

that will be used for our sundaes.

It's also just better than getting that corn starch

kind of base strawberry syrup

for your sundaes in the summertime.

So it's fresh, it's refreshing.

And I'm gonna go as far as saying

this is pretty good for you because come on.

It's fresh fruit.

Now we're just gently mashing some of those berries,

and that'll just help to kind of activate that process.

I do want some whole pieces remaining,

but you'll notice that it's starting to form

its own kind of liquid

and that should be enough mashing.

Once you see those bright red liquids

kind of coming together, you know you've done

a pretty good job mashing those berries.

Sometimes people will soak fruit for up to one week.

But other times you'll go to an old Jamaican grandma's house

and she's had a batch of rum-soaked fruit

that she uses for her cakes every year

that's been sitting for like two to three years.

And when you think about it,

once you're adding rum to fruit,

it's really preserving them.

It's a really nice way to bring an edge into any dish.

All right.

And you can just set that aside.

And those juices will develop over

10 to 20 minute period of time.

So again, it comes together very quickly.

[gentle music]

Sometimes I think simple is better,

and a little bit can go a long way

as long as you're working with really good ingredients.

So all we have here are some sliced almonds.

What's nice about this

is it's gonna add a really nice crunch topping

to our sundae.

We also have some unsweetened coconut flakes.

I like to control the sweetness of the dish

that I'm working with.

So that's why we're working with unsweetened coconut flakes

and we're gonna add in maple syrup as needed

to just kind of bring out those flavors a little bit.

Coconut is also huge in Caribbean cooking.

We use coconut for everything.

Coconut milk for our curries.

We use it for a lot of desserts.

This dish reminds me of Jamaica.

Definitely does.

And I love that about it.

Now we're just gonna do a pinch of kosher salt

and a little bit of maple syrup.

We're gonna give that a nice mix.

I believe every good sundae needs a crunch factor.

I'm huge into texture play.

You know, you have the soft berries,

obviously ice cream has a really smooth texture.

It needed a crunch.

And I wasn't sure how I wanted to work that in

and it came across beautifully.

I mean, obviously coconut's not really a neutral flavor

but I think it complements the berries very well,

and almonds provide like a really neutral,

delicious crunch factor as well.

Cool.

What we're looking for is for our almonds

to get toasted and nutty,

and our coconut flakes to do the same thing as well.

Oh yes, so you see that nice browning that occurred there.

The almonds got kind of crispy and toasted,

and you'll also notice

that you can kind of see the stickiness

of the maple syrup really well dispersed

throughout the coconut crunch topping.

So this is just gonna add just a delicious crunch

to the top of the sundae.

Can't wait.

[chill music]

I'm using this So Delicious brand of vanilla bean ice cream.

I really like it.

And also this Reddi-wip

non-dairy almond milk whipped topping.

Very delicious.

We'll start by adding one or two scoops

of ice cream to the base.

Sometimes you'll find with ice cream alternatives

that they can really get super hard

so you wanna make sure to take out your ice cream

a little bit early,

just so that you can plate it nicely.

So I'll just do two scoops.

Perfect.

And then what we'll do

is we're gonna grab those nice, juicy berries

that we were able to put together.

Look at all that syrupy goodness.

All of those juices got drawn out of the berries.

It's just gorgeous.

And we're just going to really go in there

and get some of those whole berries in there.

But really, I want some of this juice,

some of that syrupy goodness to really saturate the sundae

'cause that's what it's all about.

Then what we'll do is we'll go in with another scoop or two,

I don't know, how much ice cream can I eat today?

Maybe the whole pint?

Oh, I don't like that scoop.

Hmm, sad scoop.

Oh yeah, there we go.

That's the money scoop right there.

That's the scoop we've all been waiting for.

Just gonna get some of that red berry juice

right on top of that perfect scoop of ice cream.

Let it really drip down the side.

And then, just going with a little bit

of this whipped topping.

Oh, it doesn't wanna work.

[people laughing]

[Woman] Okay!

I'm sorry, that is too funny.

[electronic beep] The best part.

The crunchy topping.

It's probably gonna go everywhere.

That's fine.

We like a messy dessert around here, right?

Oh, that is just gorgeous.

All the colors, all the red berries,

all the coconut crunch.

Let's go.

I mean, you could really top this off

with chocolate sauce if you want, and it works.

But again, sometimes it's the simple little thing.

So that's what we're going for here.

Will you check her out?

She is beauty, she is grace,

she is delicious.

I mean, look at this thing.

It's beautiful.

You have a nice color contrast

with the vanilla bean ice cream,

the whipped cream,

the toasted coconut and almond crunch topping,

and those beautiful, vibrant, juicy red berries.

So, let's taste it.

Mm.

It's so refreshing.

The berries are so sweet and obviously we added sugar

but that was a lot of berries.

You really taste the natural flavors.

It's slightly acidic.

You can taste those aromatics from the spiced rum,

really added a really nice flavor element to this sundae.

And the coconut really sits at the back of your mouth

and just complements all of those flavors so well.

This really does remind me of Jamaica

and just has a really tropical vibe to it.

It doesn't get better than fresh in-season berries.

It really doesn't.

Mm.

[soft music]

That's it.

I hope you make it and I hope you enjoy it,

and

happy eating.

I'm still eating, I'm sorry.

[woman laughing]