This summer my wife and I got the amazing opportunity to travel inexpensively to Hawaii. I say “inexpensively” because normally if you want to take a trip to Hawaii it will cost you thousands of dollars in airfare, car rental, hotel, food, etc.

We were already on the west coast for a conference, so the airfare was much cheaper, and we have friends on O’ahu that had invited us to stay in their house while we were there. We didn’t realize until later but we weren’t staying in their guest room, they actually gave us their master suite, and we really appreciated that. They fed us part of the time, and let us use their car. So that’s what I mean by “inexpensively.” We were there for almost 10 days and in total it cost us less than $1K.

While we were there they took us to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and we got to try something called “Dole Whip.” This concoction is equal parts fresh pineapple, ice cream, and heaven. I loved it so much I actually drove an hour out of my way on our second-to-last day there in order to get it one last time.

Some time after returning to the Midwestern US I heard that Dole was producing individual cups of Dole Whip and putting them in the freezer section of stores. I got excited, obviously, and waited for months to find it. Finally I found this product at Hy Vee in Des Moines, IA when I was there visiting family. I bought two boxes, and took them out to the car. Imagine my sadness when I opened a cup to find that it was not the ice cream I was expecting, but was a frozen puree of pineapple with almost no flavor.

I thought I wouldn’t get to taste this dessert again unless I went back to Hawaii (or to a Disney park, because I hear they serve it there as well). But a friend pointed out that I could buy “Dole Pineapple-flavored soft-serve mix” on Amazon for $30-$40 per bag. Each bag makes almost 3 gallons of ice cream.

“But I don’t have a soft-serve machine!” I said. The instructions on the bag literally say to mix the entire bag and dump in a machine. I don’t need 3 gallons of pineapple ice cream nor do I have the machine to make it. And then a friend pointed out that I can just cut the recipe and make it in a regular ice cream maker. And so after getting a new Cuisinart ice cream maker (and the bag of mix) as Christmas gifts, I started experimenting.

First I did some math wrong and tried 4 cups of water and 3/4 cup of mix. It came out like pineapple flavored ice. No good.

Secondly, I re-did the math and realized it should have been 3 cups of water (not 4), and 1 cup of mix. This batch was more like pineapple sherbet (not ice cream) but it was still good.

One other change I made in every batch from this point on was that I now open a can of pineapple, drain out the juice, use the pineapple juice in the ice cream (as part of the liquid), and then add the small pieces of pineapple to the ice cream.

For my third attempt, I used the “vanilla ice cream” recipe from the Cuisinart instruction manual, which included whole milk and heavy cream (also vanilla and salt), but I used the Pineapple mix instead of sugar in the recipe. This resulted in a ice cream that was TOO creamy. I really can’t describe what that means, I just knew it was wrong.

And then we come to today. I made my fourth attempt today, and I finally got it right. I tweaked the “Vanilla Ice Cream” recipe by eliminating the heavy cream, and this is what I ended up with. This right here will make Dole Whip that is almost exactly like what you get on O’ahu.

Pineapple Ice Cream

1. Open can of pineapple tidbits, drain juice into measuring cup
2. Add whole milk to the juice until you have 3 cups total liquid.
3. Add 1 tablespoon vanilla and a pinch of salt to the liquid.
4. Pour liquid into bowl that has 1 cup of dry Pineapple Mix in it. Whisk until smooth (doesn’t take long).
5. Pour into running Cuisinart ice cream maker.
6. Fifteen minutes into the 30 minute cycle, add chopped pineapple.
7. After 30 minutes, spoon into bowls or freezer container.

For soft serve: eat immediately. 
For hard ice cream: freeze for at least 30 minutes.
For Sherbet: leave out vanilla and use water instead of milk.