She has these wonderful set of teachers who love her and patiently guide her little inquisitive mind in the path of knowledge. If you know Mia, then you know that anyone who is able to keep her entertained/active/engaged for more than 1 hour deserves a medal. Well, these teachers deserve a statue, but while I wait on my bronze delivery I will set off to make a yummy pineapple pie.
I've made this before to take to her school to thank them for all they do for my little hurricane, they loved it and kept asking me for the recipe. Again, as I've said before I don't use recipes so I couldn't share it. But this time I wrote everything down as I was making it so....here it goes!!
What you will need:
A ripe pineapple (smell the bottom of the pineapple, it should smell like a, well, pineapple...duh) You may have to buy a not so ripe one and let it ripen at home for 2 or 3 days.
1 cup of brown sugar
1/2 a stick of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 shot of rum (spiced rum is best, but you can leave this out)
Pie crust
Tear the top of the pineapple (the crown part) if you want to, you can reserve and plant this later on. They are super easy to grow in any pot and the taste of a homegrown pineapple will blow your mind away.
Cut off all of the skin off the pineapple. You could buy it peeled and cored but why?? You can use the peel to make yummy pineapple refreshment! The way I see it is I PAID for that peel (a peeled pineapple is the same price as an unpeeled one) so I'm going to use it.
So I will take these following lines to go completely off track and show you how to make some pineapple refreshment. Once you've peeled all the skin off the pineapple simply dump it in a pot with water. Put 1 or 2 cinnamon sticks and about 2 or 3 whole cloves. Put it on high and bring it to a boil, once it does, put the heat on low and leave it for about 30 mins. Remove as much pineapple skin as you can and then stir in the sugar to taste while its warm (it makes the sugar dissolve much faster). Once its cooled strain into a pitcher and add the juice of 1 lemon. Serve it up chilled.
Ok, back to the pie. Cut the pineapple up in bite size chunks, discard the core.
Meanwhile heat up a large pot or skillet and melt the 1/2 a stick of butter, once melted add the flour and mix to make a roux. Add the pineapple chunks and coat them with the roux. The pineapple will release its juices and mix up with the roux, continue stirring so that it doesn't stick or burn, do this for about 10-15 mins. Before adding the sugar taste this mixture, the pineapple may be so ripe and sweet that a whole cup of sugar may not be needed. Add the sugar to taste and stir to coat the pineapple, add the remaining ingredients (cinnamon, cloves, rum and extract). Turn off the heat and let cool.
Ok, there are days in which I feel like Suzy Homemaker and make HUGE batches of pie crust (it freezes real well) and then there are days that I totally cheat and buy the already made version that is in the cookie section. The finished product is yummy regardless.
Cover the bottom of a pie dish with crust and fill it up with the pineapple filling.
Cover the top with another piece of crust. Make some holes with a fork so that steam can be released during the cooking. Brush the top with some melted butter.
Put it in a 350 oven for about 30 mins or until the crust is golden. Let it cool and serve. YUM.
Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the finished product. My husband and Mia couldn't wait and started picking at it before I could get to it. They don't care about the "let cool" period.
