My old fashioned pineapple pie with fresh pineapple is easy and delicious. Since you can use either fresh pineapple or frozen, this recipe is super simple, especially if you use storebought pie crust. Although this pie definitely has a strong–and pleasant–pineapple flavor, I was surprised by how much this dessert reminded me of peach pie in both appearance and taste. If you love peach pie but you’re looking for something different that still has a classic, old fashioned taste and appearance, this recipe is for you.

Pineapple Pie Recipe Versions

Around the World

Although most people in the United States have never heard of a pineapple pie, desserts referred to as “pineapple pie” exist on Polynesian islands such as Fiji and Samoa. These pies use canned pineapple to make a custard filling that goes inside of either a parbaked crust or a crescent-shape hand pie.

In the United States, there are various recipes online for traditional pineapple pie. Most of the old fashioned pineapple pie recipes are very similar to my millionaire pie recipe: canned crushed pineapple is mixed with sweetened condensed milk and / or Cool Whip / whipped cream, the filling then poured into a graham cracker crust.

2 Crust Pineapple Pie

Even though there’s also a recipe for Johnny Cash pineapple pie that uses eggs, butter, and canned crushed pineapple to make a custard filling, here seem to be almost no recipes in the United States for a double crust pineapple pie.

I love classic pies like apple and mixed berry pie, so I set out to invent a pineapple pie recipe that would resemble what I consider to be a classic American pie: crust on the bottom, fruit in the middle, and crust on the top.

I didn’t have much to go off of when developing my recipe, so it was definitely a bit of a challenge. However, it turned out even better–and tastier–than I had expected, so I was more than pleased!

Canned Pineapple vs. Crushed Pineapple for Pie Filling

Although many recipes for things like pineapple filling for cakes or pineapple sauce for baked ham call for canned pineapple, I wanted to use fresh pineapple. I used both canned and fresh fruit in my pineapple upside down cake recipe, and there was no question that the fresh pineapple was far tastier.

That’s why I highly recommend that you use fresh or frozen pineapple if you make this pie recipe. Honestly, as a chef, I feel that fresh and canned pineapple taste so different that they’re almost like 2 different fruits. Even if it’s a bit more work, your taste buds will thank you!

How to Make Old Fashioned Pineapple Pie with Fresh Pineapple

Old Fashioned Pineapple Pie Recipe — My old fashioned pineapple pie recipe looks just like a classic American fruit pie.

Although developing the recipe was a bit of a challenge, learning how to make an old fashioned pineapple pie with fresh pineapple actually isn’t that hard. I think this recipe is actually more forgiving than it looks: as long as you follow my steps, it should turn out great!

Prepping the Pineapple

Like I said, I highly suggest using fresh pineapple over canned. When I made this recipe, I bought a fresh pineapple, cut it up, froze it, and then thawed it the day I made the pie. You can definitely cut up a pineapple on the same day that you make this pie, but I think it’s a lot of work: sometimes it’s easier to do some of the prep ahead of time.

Since I froze the pineapple and then thawed it, definitely feel free to press the “easy” button and just buy frozen pineapple. I used storebought frozen pineapple when I made pineapple cobbler, and I thought it tasted just as good. As I’ve explained in other recipes, frozen fruit is a very good option for making pies and cobblers.

Making the Pineapple Filling

Ingredients

Making the filling is very simple: all you have to do is mix together the pineapple chunks, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, cornstarch, water, and a bit of salt. There’s no cooking on the stove required–literally just mixing.

Even though it might seem odd, adding lemon zest and juice to your pineapple pie filling is a good idea. As in other recipes, lemon brings out fruit flavors–and this pineapple pie was no exception.

Adding Water to the Filling?

I know that adding water to the filling probably sounds odd. However, pineapples are not as juicy as other fruits like strawberries, so I was afraid that the filling would turn out dry.

After doing research online and thinking about pineapples themselves, I figured that adding extra liquid would not be a bad idea. Even though you might think that adding water would “water down” the flavor, it didn’t. Instead, the extra liquid did just what I wanted it to do: it made the filling nice and juicy.

White or Brown Sugar?

I used white sugar, but you could use light brown if you want: brown sugar and pineapple is a common combination on baked hams. However, I wanted my pineapple pie filling to have a nice yellow color, so I chose to only use white. If you’re willing to potentially sacrifice the color of the filling, I think brown sugar would be good in this recipe.

Assembling the Pie

After parbaking the crust, I simply poured the filling into the 9-inch pie shell and put on the top crust. After crimping the edges and cutting steam vents, I sprinkled the top with some white and light brown sugar: I do this for all my fruit pies, and I think it adds a nice bit of crunch.

When baking a pineapple pie–or any fruit pie–be sure to bake it on a cookie sheet or pizza pan in case it boils over. It’s easier to clean a pan than the bottom of your oven.

2 Crust Pineapple Pie — My 2 crust pineapple pie looks–and tastes–surprisingly similar to a southern style peach pie.

A Chef’s Review

Like I said, I was really pleased with how this old fashioned pineapple pie with fresh pineapple recipe turned out. The pineapple flavor was a lot stronger than I had expected–to some degree, I thought it even tasted more like pineapple than fresh pineapple!

The hardest part was developing the recipe. Should I add water to the filling? What about lemon? How much sugar? What type of sugar? Although this was my first time making this pie recipe, I thought it turned out absolutely perfectly. If you’re looking for a new yet still familiar dessert, give this a try!

Possible Changes

Although this pie turned out perfectly on the first try, I might want to try:

Brown sugar – Brown sugar and pineapple are known to go together well.
Add peaches – I think a peach and pineapple pie would be good.

More Pineapple Recipes

If you love pineapple desserts as much as I do, be sure to try:

Pineapple Dump Cake with 3 Ingredients – Canned crushed pineapple makes this cobbler super easy.