This pie is easily made and, thanks to the pineapple flowers which give zing in terms of taste, it also looks spectacular.

Good and Bad news

So the Good news about this pie is that it looks sensational.

But the Bad news is that you really need to eat it the same day you make it or it goes soggy.

So the Bad news is that you need to allow an hour or so to make it.

But the Good news is that for most of that time you can go away and do something else…put your feet up and have a cup of coffee…..while the pie sets in the fridge, or the flowers dry slowly in a low oven.

Recipe for coconut and pineapple flower pie

For ten to fourteen

Ingredients

• 250g/8 oz ginger nut biscuits
• 100g/4 oz butter at room temperature
• 480 ml/2 cups/3 small tins coconut cream
• 300 ml/1¼ cup double cream
• 1½ tbsps. vanilla paste
• 4 tbsps maple syrup, plus more to serve
• 3 leaves of gelatine
• 1 small pineapple

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150ºC (use the Aga top left oven).
2. Peel the pineapple and slice it very thinly. Dry with kitchen paper.
3. Lay the slices out onto large, flat baking trays lined with silicon paper.
4. Bake for thirty minutes. Take out. Turn over, return to the oven for another thirty minutes. They should be becoming quite dry and just turning a deep rose gold colour. Leave to cool for a few minutes.
5. Dig out 2 x 12 hole non-stick muffin tins. Press each slice into a muffin hole.
6. Small diameter slices may fit, made into a bowl shape, into a muffin hole, it doesn’t matter if they are too big for the hole.
7. Leave the pineapple flowers in the tins until just before serving.
8. Meanwhile, empty the biscuits into a freezer bag, and crush into crumbs with a rolling pin. Add in the room temperature butter, and bash the bag around to mix in the butter. Press the biscuit crust into a 25cm/10” loose-based pie tin.
9. Put in the fridge and leave for half an hour.
10. Soak the gelatine leaves in warm water.
11. Bring the coconut cream, the double cream, the vanilla paste and the maple syrup to the boil. Take off the heat and leave for five minutes.
12. Squeeze out the water around the gelatine leaves and stir into the cream mixture until it’s dissolved.
13. When it’s cool (and thickened up), pour into the pie crust and return to the fridge to allow to set for half an hour or so.
14. Just before you are due to serve, put the flowers back in the oven to crisp them up for about five minutes. Take out, allow to cool for a couple of minutes and then decorate the pie with the flowers.

Serve, with a flourish, and some extra maple syrup.