I love pie. Plain and simple, pie is one of my childhood favorite foods and it remains my all-time favorite dessert (and also my favorite breakfast!). There's nothing better that diving into a wedge-shaped slab of pie at any time of the day.
My mother was known for her peach pies but apple, raspberry, blueberry, cherry, custard, butterscotch, banana cream and chocolate were also quite popular. This recipe for pineapple pie stood out to me as I've never had a pineapple pie. It gets worse ... I haven't even heard of a pineapple pie.
How could I have loved pie for so long and never had this one before?
Pineapple Pie
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups crushed pineapple
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2/3 cup sweet cream
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1 unbaked pie shell
Beat together the butter, sugar, and egg yolks to a creamy consistency. Add pineapple.
In a small dish, dissolve the cornstarch in the sweet cream. Add the cornstarch mixture to the pineapple mix.
Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites to the pineapple mix. Place mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes then reduce heat to moderate oven and bake until filling is brown and firm in the center.
Doesn't this sound delicious? Mark of No Special Effects has a wonderful looking version of pineapple pie on his blog.
I made this today, but have some recommendations on the baking. I was thrown off by the firm center. The filling and the center never really become firm as long as the pie is hot. After you remove it to cool, the center will condense and become more firm. I'd judge baking time by the brown filling. When the whole thing is brown on top and it's hot and bubbly underneath, you could probably remove it from the oven.
I screwed up the first one and it got a little bit more brown on top than I would have preferred because I didn't think that the filling was done because it wasn't firm. It firmed up completely when removed. I'll have to give it another go in the future.