Vibrant Pineapple, Mango, and Strawberry Pie Recipe

Ryan Thomas is a university student who enjoys cooking recipes from a wide variety of culinary traditions.

One of my favorite YouTube channels comes from The French Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, or the National Audivisual Institution. One of their sub-channels is Ina Les Recettes Vintage, or Ina Vintage Recipes, and I happened upon a video for a French cooking show from the 1990s entitled La Cuisine des mousquetaires, or The Food of the Musketeers. Here, they were making a truly bizarre product: pineapple jam! This definitely caught my interest, and in trying to come up with a way to use it I thought about using it as a filling for a dessert. Thus this pineapple, mango, and strawbery pie was born.

An incredibly fruity idea as it turned out! The pie positively bursts with flavor from the fruit within, all ensconced without a delicious crust. The pineapple forms a wonderfully sweet filling that is rich, smooth, and flavorul; yet it doesn't overwhelm the mangoes or strawberries. A nice crumble of graham crackers on top completes the elegant picture.

The pie has a lovely texture, as well—it is soft and almost pudding-like. If you prefer a drier pie, you can reduce the amount of milk, and for a more classic fruit pie you can add pectin to firm it up. But personally I quite liked the almost pudding-like style of this pie.

This recipe is entirely my own.

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Ingredients

• 1 pineapple
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 pound strawberries
• 2 mangoes
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons whipping cream
• 1 1/3 cups milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 2 graham crackers
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 limes, or some lime juice

Instructions

1. Make the pineapple jam (the pie filling): Remove the exterior of a pineapple and the hard core of the fruit. Chop the remaining fruit into small pieces. In a bowl, add the chopped fruit, juice of limes or lime juice, and brown sugar. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
2. After the 24 hours, place the pineapple-sugar mixture into a saucepan. Over low heat, cook for 50 minutes; then mash until it is reasonably smooth and broken down. Once it is cool, add in the milk and egg yolks and beat until everything is combined into a smooth mixture. (For a firmer pie, add less milk.)
3. Make the crust: Allow the butter to reach room temperature (or microwave it to warm it up). In a small bowl, combine the butter, flour, confectioner's sugar, and salt. Beat until it comes together in little balls. Then add the whipping cream and create a smooth ball.
4. Either roll this out or place it directly into a large 10-inch pie dish, and flute the edges delicately. Poke holes in it with a fork and place it into a 350-degree F oven for 10 minutes, with aluminum foil over it. Then remove the aluminum foil and cook another 10 minutes.
5. Once this has cooled, place the strawberries, hulled and chopped in half, and the mangoes, which are peeled and chopped to one's preferred size, into the pie crust. Then add in the pineapple filling to cover it and make sure it is well distributed.
6. Place this into the oven again at 350 degrees F for 60 minutes. When it is removed, place the graham cracker crumble over it, with two graham crackers that have been crumbled and mixed with a teaspoon of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of sugar, sprinkling it over the top of the pie.
7. Place the pie back into the oven at 350 degrees F for another 15 minutes. Allow it to cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and perhaps add whipped cream.