This is one of my favorite holiday dishes EVER. Grandma used to make it every Thanksgiving and every Christmas, and it was a side dish staple. Pineapple as a side dish? Say wuh? Yep. The closest thing I can compare it to is bread pudding. Served warm, I supposed you could adorn it with a scoop of vanilla, or some fantastic bourbon cream sauce or something of the sort, but I thin that would give it more of a dessert feel (not an all together bad idea- for I do love my bread pudding.)
The past few years, my mom sister and I have made collaborative efforts towards the holiday meal, each of us bringing a few to the get together to lessen the work load for the hostess.
I also recently made this for my boyfriends birthday party- we invited his mom, sister and grandparents over as they had never been to/seen our house before. His grandma and grandma were so sweet and complimentary, but especially seemed to like this dish out of everything I made. So, I told her I’d made it to bring to their holiday get together.
Well, I made it yesterday and as his family went through the buffet line- I heard “what is this?”. “Some sort of dressing I think.” Another person, “no, I think it’s potatoes.” Someone else- ” Kelli said it was pineapple.” And finally, “no it’s not pineapple.”
Yep! It’s pineapple! I’ll have to admit the name itself is somewhat confusing to me now that I’ve thought about it. I usually associate the word “scalloped” with cheesy potatoes- I think as most people do. So I looked it up. The word “scalloped” when associated with cooking is derived from the French word “escalloped” :
So, I suppose it does make sense, but could be misleading. We can call it pineapple bread pudding if it makes anyone feel better. Whatever it’s called- it was a hit and I got lots of compliments. AND- it’s CRAZY easy.
Below is Grandma Mary’s original recipe- I have no idea where she got it from but she’s been making this for 20 years. And after that I have a “party size” recipe that I typically make for large groups, or you can divide it into two pans and take more than one get together. This also freezes well.
Grandma Mary’s Scalloped Pineapple
Ingredients:
- 1- 20 oz can crushed pineapple
- 3 eggs beaten
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 c bread cubes (about 8 slices)
- 1 cup melted butter
Mix and bake in greased casserole dish (she uses an 8×8). Turn in oven to bake evenly. Bake one hour at 350 F.
Party portion:
- 1.5 loaf white bread, cubed
- 1.5 c butter (3 sticks)
- 3 -20 oz cans crushed pineapple
- 6 eggs beaten
- 2 tbsp vanilla
- 3 cups sugar
Prepare the same way. I use a 9 x 13 aluminum roaster pan (these are slightly larger and have a wider dimension at the top of the pan that a regular 9×13 baking dish.) If you choose to use your regular 9×13 baking dish, you might want to dole out some and put in another smaller dish- as I did for the photo. I took the large pan to the bf’s family get together, and the smaller one to mine- my family is considerably smaller.
I hope you enjoy! This will be something no one at the party has had before! Remember, you can also serve it as a dessert with ice cram or a cream sauce. Serve warm!
- xo Kelli
