It’s a Secret Recipe Club Monday! They are my favorite Mondays so I’m excited. 🙂 This month I made a great Pineapple Cream Pie to share with you. And I wish you were here with me now I so I could give you a piece, because it’s a sweet, creamy, tropical treat. We loved it!
If you’re new, you might be a bit confused. SRC? What’s that? Let me explain. It’s a pretty amazing blogging club. Basically, the premise is this: you’re assigned a different member’s blog every month. You visit their blog, choose any recipe you want, then make it and share it on your blog… all while keeping your assignment a secret! Everyone else posts about their secret blog the same day. It’s fabulously fun to try out new blogs. If you have a blog, definitely check it out and consider joining! I highly recommend it.
When I was assigned Lisa’s blog, before I even started perusing her recipe index, I knew I had to make a dessert recipe, no question about it. I mean, with a blog called Sweet as Sugar Cookies, how could I not?!? Lisa is such a sweetie [word choice –> totally on purpose!!]. She’s from Hawaii [how cool is that?] and she’s been baking since she was 12, so she has tons of great recipes on her site. Her passions aside from baking include her faith and her family, both of which come through so clearly on her site. When trying to decide what to make, so many things sounded delicious, but I pretty much narrowed it down quickly to this pie or ice cream. I just got an ice cream maker, and have yet to test it out. I think that all of her ice creams sound divine [especially spicy peanut butter, ginger, or cherry] but I wasn’t able to clear the freezer out quickly enough to make that happen. Sad day. So pie it was!! And guess what–making this pie was not a sacrifice at all. It was so tasty!
This Pineapple Cream Pie is a snap to whip up–you basically make a flavorful vanilla pudding on the stovetop, stir in crushed pineapple, and pop it all in a baked pie shell to chill for awhile. When you’re ready to enjoy a huge piece, just top with Cool Whip or whipped cream. I used Cool Whip, and as you can see, it was a little melty. Though this pie won’t win any beauty contests [mine at least… Lisa’s is gorgeous, and she has a great family story to tell about it too. Check it out here!], the taste is just incredible. I made my pie in my fail proof pie crust, but feel free to use your own recipe or even a store bought crust. Ben and I ate this as part of our 4th of July meal, and have been snacking on it ever since. I’ve seriously never had anything like it… I want to say it reminds me of Banana Cream Pie, but it really doesn’t, so you’ll just have to try out this fruity cream pie for yourself. I can just imagine eating it on the beach in Hawaii… how perfect would that be? 🙂 Mmmm. Thanks, Lisa! Enjoy!
Pineapple Cream Pie
Ingredients:
for the crust
- 8 ounces unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and frozen for at least 15 minutes, but better 1 hour to overnight
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3-6 tablespoons ice water [very very cold water]
[You can also substitute your own pie crust recipe or a storebought crust.]
for the pie filling
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 2 1/2 cups skim milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 20 ounce can crushed pineapple, well drained [crushed pineapple to equal about 1 packed cup]
for topping
- 6-8 ounces Cool Whip or whipped cream
Directions:
To make pie crust, begin by freezing 8 ounces [1 stick] unsalted butter, cubed into very small pieces. Preferably, this will be done the day before you want to make the crust, but the butter needs to freeze for at least 15 minutes to an hour for ultimate flakiness.
After butter is frozen, combine flour, sugar, and salt in food processor and pulse several times. Add half of the butter and pulse 6-8 times, then add the rest and pulse 6-8 more times. At this point, the dough should resemble cornmeal. Add ice water tablespoon by tablespoon, pulsing in between additions. I usually use about 4-5 tablespoons water, and the goal is to make the dough just hold together when you pinch it.
Turn dough out onto a clean countertop and gently knead it together to form a disk. You should be able to see pieces of butter–this is good, and will cause it to be flaky. Cover  disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour [or overnight].
When ready to bake pie crust, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Let dough come to room temperature for about 5 minutes, then roll into a 10-11 inch circle on a floured countertop. Transfer to a 9 inch pie plate, then lightly spray with cooking spray and cover with aluminum foil. Add pie weights of some type [pennies, dried beans, rice] to the top of the foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove pie from oven, reduce heat to 375 degrees, and remove foil and pie weights. Return to pie to oven and bake for 12-18 minutes or until crust is golden brown and fully cooked. Set aside to cool while preparing the pie filling. [At this point, crust can be cooled and covered until the next day.]
To make the pie filling, combine sugar, salt, cornstarch, flour, milk, and egg yolk in a large saucepan. Whisk together until smooth–yolks beaten, cornstarch and flour making no lumps. Set saucepan over medium heat, and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. The mixture should thicken as you go, and once boiling, let cook for 1 minute and keep stirring. Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla. Stir until butter melts, then add crushed pineapple. Stir and add to baked pie shell.
Refrigerate for at least 3 hours to allow filling to firm up, then top with Cool Whip or whipped cream as desired. Serve immediately and enjoy!
P.S. For more great SRC recipes, check out the links below! 🙂
The Pajama Chef 
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