Vickys Shortcrust Pineapple Pie, GF DF EF SF NF

Preheat the oven to gas 4 / 180C / 350F

Using 2/3 of your shortcrust pastry, roll out into a circle around 4mm thick and line an 8 inch loose-bottomed pie tin

Prick the base with a fork, line with parchment paper and weight down with baking beans. Blind bake for 15 minutes then remove the parchment and beans and bake a further 5 minutes

Gently melt the ‘butter’ in a frying pan and add the pineapple chunks. Fry for a few minutes until softened and easily crushed then add the tin of drained tidbits

Make a slurry from the cornflour and pineapple juice then add to the pan. Boil for 2 to 3 minutes until thickened. Add sugar to taste. Depending on the pineapple brand I’ve used anything from 2 tbsp sugar to 8 tbsp

Let the filling cool slightly then add to the baked pastry case. (I added the leftover cherries from a previous recipe just to get rid of them)

Now you can simply roll out the remaining pastry to around 3mm thick and top the pie with a disc or you can make a lattice top like mine. It takes longer but it looks pretty. Cut strips from your remaining rolled out pastry around 1cm wide with a pizza cutter

Place in one direction on top of your pie, not quite touching

Pull every 2nd strip back on themselves and lay a new strip across the top of the unfolded strips, then put the 1st lot of strips back down

Now fold back the strips that didn’t move the first time. Lay a new strip across those then unfold the strips back over the pie

Continue weaving the strips in this way until the top is done then trim off the excess. This pie top is self vented. If you choose to put a solid circle crust on top, poke 4 vent holes near the middle to let the steam escape

Brush the pie top with the reserved pineapple juice and bake at gas 5 / 190C / 375F for 25 minutes or until golden

Let the pie cool and slice it at room temperature or chilled. If you slice it hot the filling will be too thin and spill out. You can serve it warm in a bowl with ice cream or at room temp on a plate. You could use all tidbits instead of chunks but I like enjoy a chunk here and there for another texture!