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20 June 2011

letha's pineapple cream pie

in honor of father's day, i made this pie for my wonderful father-in-law - fred.
this recipe is his mom's - letha - and is also his fav-o-rite pie.

i have altered the original recipe a bit through the years - always tweaking to make it better and hopefully better for fred.  i'd love to know if you try it and what you think of it...

letha's pineapple cream pie

1 baked pie crust - cooled - i use this recipe

filling:
2 cups evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
dash of salt
put these three items in medium pot on stovetop

in medium bowl combine:
1 can pineapple chunks, extremely well drained, roughly chopped (here's a picture of it...)
or you could used crushed pineapple, i've just found that rough chopping the pineapple myself makes for a nicer pie -

4 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with a little cold water - then pour over pineapple
3 egg yolks (i save the egg whites for the meringue i put on the pie - i use 4 egg whites for the meringue, so i go ahead a set said 4 egg whites at this point)
dump the bowl ingredients into the pot on the stove.

combine all ingredients with whisk.  turn on the heat.  i have a ceramic cook top and use a 4 - so medium heat... stir constantly until it begins to thicken and boil.  as soon as it begins to boil, stir constantly for one more minute. 

pour filling into cooled pie crust...


meringue

now, i know that there are lots of meringue recipes...
this one works for me.
i use a viking mixer with a whisk attachment (i had a kitchen aid mixer that i used before the viking and it worked well for meringue too).
the weather can play with your meringue - humidity can make this difficult to have it turn out great - but oh well.  just do the best you can :)

i usually wipe out the mixing bowl and whisk with white vinegar right before i make this.  a tip from julia child.  makes sure there is no grease/fat in bowl...

4 egg whites
dash of salt
1/4 cup sugar - superfine if you happen to have it

beat the egg whites and salt on high speed for three minutes... looks like this for me -


with mixer running, g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y add 1/4 cup sugar.  this usually takes me 2 minutes.  after 6 minutes TOTAL mixing, mine looks something like this -


mix 2 more minutes or so...  you're looking for a stiff mixture -


begin to spread over pie...


make sure you bring the meringue all the way up to the edges of the crust all the way around.

 
put all the meringue over the pie -


bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes, checking to make sure the meringue gets evenly browned.  i usually check mine after about 8 minutes and turn the pie to have it browned on both sides.


my father-in-law loves this best the second day...

2 comments:

Sant Family said...

Now I know why I have never successfully meringued! I had no idea it was so time intensive. Also, if humidity affects it, that means pretty much no meringue in Louisiana for the next ... 6 months.

Looks like another trip to your casa is going to have to happen!

Thanks for the recipe. I am totally going to try it one day. You are such an amazing cook! All my children want to live at your house forever.

Splendorfalls said...

Holy Moly that looks gooooood!!!