Almost a pineapple pie!
I don’t know what you are doing if you are still home bound but when I bought all those groceries a couple of weeks ago to make post surgery meals I knew if I had flour, sugar, butter, chocolate and some fruits I could bake, bake, bake. And that is what I did.
During this time I also experimented with a couple of recipes I’ve been wanting to try and I knew for a couple of weeks at least after surgery I would not be baking/cooking.
These little or big (however you cut them) bars are delicious. There are no eggs in this and the filling is almost pie-like. Delicious. There are so many recipes that say don’t use fresh pineapple and that is because there is an enzyme in fresh pineapple that doesn’t react well with proteins so now you know. The cornstarch is what is used for a thickener and it does a great job.
I know “juicy” is not a favorite word of a lot of people but these are so juicywonderful. If you love pineapple and want a different “bar” recipe, give this a try and please leave a note below.
BLAST FROM THE PAST: Another recipe using fresh pineapple is my Zucchini, Cucumber and Pineapple Salad. With Spring and Summer ahead of us this is a easy and fun recipe to make.
(Update on shoulder: Im five weeks out now. I can kind of brush my teeth and kind of do my hair and I’m definitely getting back to cooking. Still a little hard to use a can opener and peel an apple but today I’m making my peanut butter shadow cookies for when we have open house (yeah, moving to Round Top) for hopefully potential buyers)
This is all you need.
After reserving one cup of crust mixture, press the remaining into a sprayed 9×9″ pan.
Mix the pineapple, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, salt, vanilla (and coconut extract act if using).
Pour this mixture onto the baked crust.
Topping ingredients.
Top pineapple mixture with crumb topping and put back in oven.
Pineapple Crunch Bars
Ingredients
- 2 c. all-purpose flour
- 3/4 c. butter softened
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. coconut extract optional
- 1 1/3 c. granulated sugar divided
- 1/2 tsp. kosher salt divided
- 4 c. chopped fresh pineapple about 22 1/2 oz.
- 1/4 c.cornstarch
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon
- 1/2 c. chopped macadamia nuts
- 1/2-3/4 c. large flaked coconut
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly coat a 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Beat flour, butter, vanilla, (and coconut extract if using), 1 cup of the sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt with a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-low speed until mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 1 minute. Reserve 1 cup of the crumb mixture in a small bowl for the topping. Press remaining crumb mixture evenly into bottom of prepared pan.
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Bake crust until golden brown, about 18 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack, and cool crust completely, about 30 minutes. (Do not turn off oven.)
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Meanwhile, gently stir together chopped pineapple, cornstarch, lemon juice, and remaining 1/3 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Spread pineapple mixture evenly over cooled crust.
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Stir together macadamia nuts, coconut, and reserved crumb mixture in a small bowl until combined. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over pineapple mixture on crust. Bake at 375°F until the filling is bubbly and the topping is lightly browned, 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour, and cut into 16 squares.
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