Pineapple Custard Pie

I was forced to make this pie by my husband who grew up in the pacific islands so he loves anything pineapple or anything to do with coconut. He has been trying to attempt to get this pie perfected like his late mum use to make it only problem is that among his sister's she never left a proper recipe it was all in her head. So I was left with the daunting task of trying to create this pie from scratch just base on my hubby's memory of what it tasted and looked like. As always I looked to my buddy Mr Google for answers to life's intriguing problems and lo and behold I found someone thru a blog who was an islanser herself who has something like a pie recipe from the islands. Although in this instance because it was a recipe passed down from someone to someone else the recipe got filtered down and meausurements were not quite there. So I started on my journey to recreate this pie....

Ingredients(Pastry)
4 cups self-raising flour
150g butter
1 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 cup milk

Preparation(Pastry)

• Cream butter and sugar till pale white in colour.
• Sift flour into the butter and sugar mixture.
• Beat the egg yolks with the milk, setting the egg whites aside to be use for the meringue later.
• Mix the milk and egg mixture into the batter of butter, flour and sugar.
• Grease a casserole dish or a roasting pan with margarine or butter so the pastry doesn’t stick to the dish/pan. Spead the pastry ensuring the dish is evenly spreaded out to cover the whole dish.
• Bake in oven for 180 degrees celcius for 20-30minuutes.

Filling
6 cups water

1 cup custard powder

1 can crushed pineapple

1 cup sugar

1 cup milk

Preparation(Filling)

• While your pastry is baking, put 6 cups of water into a pan/pot bring to the boil.
• Once boiled, put 1 cup of sugar, stirring thoroughly so the sugar doesn’t settle at the bottom.
• Put your custard powder into a mixing jug/container, then slowly add your 1 cup of milk, mixing it so as not to create any lumps.
• Once the custard is mixed thoroughly, then pour into the water, stirring thoroughly as it tends to settle easily on the bottom of the pot/pan. Once it’s boiled, your custard should be fairly thick.
• Mix in some more custard powder if you think it’s not thick enough. Then bring it the boil once it’s boiled, it should be ready.

Your pastry should be ready when it’s lightly brown in the oven. Bring it out of the oven, then pour your custard into your pastry dish/pan, then let it settle while you prepare the merigue.

Meringue (Topping)

4 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar

• Beat all the ingredients in a bowl with a electric mixer till the egg whites become stiff. 
• Spread on top of the custard mixture and bake in the oven till it browns.
• Serve warm or cold.

Hubby was rather impress with the end result and I must say I did pretty well with the limited knowledge of what the pie should taste or look like.