On a  journey toward permanent weight loss?  Want to kick up your immune system? Looking for new ideas for healthy eating?  If so, put  fresh pineapple  on your weekly shopping list.

I love fresh pineapple! The best part about my infatuation is that pineapple is really nutritious and also reduces inflammation and pain.*

Living in coastal California, our summers come twice — it gets hot in May, then it remains cool and often foggy while the inland valleys are hot. When the valleys cool down, we have our second summer, usually in September.  True to form, this September warmed up and I made this delicious beverage  twice for friends.

Courtesy of Lois Laidlaw

Courtesy of Beth Hensperger

Most coffee cake recipes, especially ones for winter, call for canned pineapple, but here the glistening fresh fruit layer is made from scratch and accented with pure vanilla, a most complementary culinary pairing. To choose a ripe pineapple, look for a strong sweet fragrance and yellow-brown skin that is not too green; the leafy crown will be a bright green and an inner leaf will detach easily when plucked from the center. Adapted from an old recipe clipped from Bon Appétit magazine decades ago, it is quite perfect in flavor and texture, and easily serves a large crowd. This is simply one of the best homemade coffeecakes.