Caramelized Pineapple (Attempt #1)

Tonight on a whim we decided to try to caramelize some fresh pineapple chunks chopped from a Maui Gold Pineapple that was getting to the point of "eat or toss". Without any instruction or knowhow, other than having watched the episode of Jacques Pepin's cooking show on the topic, we made our first attempt at what should be a relatively simple recipe. We checked a few interenet recipes, all of which called for a few ingredients we didn't have, such as corn syrup or rum, but hey, caramel is just cooked sugar and water, right?

After the sugar carmelized, we poured in about 1/2 cup of pineapple juice (canned), watched as the brown sugar turned into a sticky, viscous clump. Caramel, right? Not really. We added the pineapple chunks, and waited. And stirred. And waited. Nothing really happened. Maybe too much liquid, not enough sugar, I don't really know. The pineapple sat, being sauteed in sugar water until it grew soft and we figured we should take the whole operation off of the heat before we ended up with warm pineapple mush. Strangely enough, after the initial caramelization of the sugar, nothing much turned into caramel, on or around the pineapple.

So we live again to try another time. Maybe next time with just sugar and water. Maybe I should learn how to make simple syrup. Maybe I should try my hand at caramel? Oh well. At least the ice cream was good.