1. Lay the pineapple down and cut off the bottom and top. Stand it up again and trim off the outer shell, cutting out any dark eyes that remain. Cut the pineapple into quarters vertically. Trim off and discard the section of hard center core from each piece. Your knife should easily slide down between the ripe pineapple and the hard core with little effort. Cut each quarter lengthwise into two and then slice the fruit into about 1/2 inch chunks. The chunk size isnt critical. (Here is a nice how to cut a pineapple pictorial that is basically the way that I do it, though I cant bear to waste so much of the fruit, so I fiddle with cutting out the eyes more than any Honduran I know.)

After 5 minutes, the sugar has dissolved and the pineapple juice is boiling.

After 10 minutes of cooking, youll think that you have way too much liquid. But that liquid is going to condense and evaporate, leaving an intensely flavored syrup.

After 15 minutes, youll see that the most of the pineapple is beginning to look slightly translucent and the juice is thickening.

After 30 minutes, the liquid has reduced and thickened. The cooking time doesnt require much attention. Use medium-high heat so that the mixture is bubbling and just stir occasionally.

Tip: Do not leave it to go outside to catch chickens. I trimmed off those browned bits. Thankfully the syrup had not burned.

Another emergency came up and I had to stick it in the refrigerator. The syrup was quite thick when I returned home.

3. Put the pineapple mixture along with the liquid into a blender and purée. After puréeing, my 2 cups became 1 1/2 cups. Pineapple fruit tends to get stringy in the ice cream maker so process until it is very smooth. (Do as I say, not as I do.) The cooked mixture should taste very sweet as it will taste less sweet to the tongue once it is frozen and diluted with the other ingredients. Chill the purée. The pineapple can be prepared a day ahead of time, or longer if frozen.

* Preparing pineapple for two batches

Since pineapple size can vary so much, you may have enough for two batches (5-7 cups of chunks) . If you do, add about 1/4 cup of sugar for each additional cup of pineapple chunks. After cooking, put about 2 cups of cooked fruit at a time into the blender to purée thoroughly. Divide the purée into 2 containers of about 1 to 1 1/2 cups each. Chill one batch for your ice cream and freeze the other for another day.

** Using part of the pineapple for topping

2. Measure the chunks: 3-4 cups of chunks will make one batch; 5-7 cups will make two batches of ice cream. At this point, decide if you are going to process the fruit for one or two batches * (see below). The extra processed fruit freezes well, so you can save it for another day. Other options are to use the excess fruit for topping ** (see below) or just reserve the extra fresh fruit for another use.

3. Put 3 to 4 cups of pineapple chunks into a large saute pan with the sugar and cinnamon. I used 4 cups of chunks which became 2 cups after cooking and became about 1 1/2 cups after pureeing. Simmer over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Cook until the pineapple looks slightly translucent and the sugar and juice have cooked into a thick syrup, usually about 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Below are some photos so you can get an idea of what you will see. Click to enlarge any of the photos.

The pineapple, sugar, and cinnamon in the pan. No liquid is added.

Using any excess pineapple for ice cream topping is tricky. I have roughly chopped (in the blender) some of the cooked pineapple for topping and El Jefe likes it, but it is too sweet for my taste. What Im going to try the next time I have extra pineapple (but not enough for two batches) is to reduce the amount of extra sugar, spoon out some of the chunks after about 15 minutes of cooking, and drain them thoroughly. I think that may lock in the flavor without sweetening the pineapple too much. Alternately, you could just reserve a few cooked and sweetened chunks for garnish.

5. Chill the mix thoroughly (1 to 2 hours) in the freezer, stirring occasionally. When the ice cream begins to freeze around the edges of the container, stir in the frozen bits for a few seconds, turn on machine, and pour mix into your machine. Follow your machines instructions for freezing.

If you can stand waiting, let the finished ice cream firm up in the freezer for an hour or two. Serve topped with excess sweetened fruit or purée, if desired.

Using fresh pineapple chunks for topping doesnt work very well as the fresh pineapple tastes very acidic and flavorless compared to the ice cream.

Now that the pineapple is ready and chilled ....

4. Beat the eggs for 2 minutes with a wire whisk. Whisk in the cream and 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the sweeten pineapple purée. Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups milk, or enough to make no more than 5 cups of ice cream mix. Of course, alternatively you could make a cooked custard base with the milk and eggs.