Grapefruit Pie

Did I ever tell you that I used to be a chemist?  While I don't work in a lab anymore (for which I'm eternally grateful), I do miss it sometimes.  I guess I kind of view the kitchen as my laboratory these days--a place to experiment and create new things.  This next recipe isn't my creation; it's from Momofuku Milk Bar, but it does have some really cool steps.  You gently heat grapefruit sections with a small amount of oil, and all the little "kernels" separate from one another.  And when you add grapefruit juice and citric acid to sweetened condensed milk, it thickens without needing to add any heat.  Luckily, I was able to find citric acid in the bulk spice section of my local grocery store. 

There are quite a few steps to making this pie, but the end result is pretty impressive, so I think it's worth it.  First you make some Ritz crunch (like Cornflake Crunch, but with Ritz crackers) and then press it into a pie pan.  Then you make a grapefruit and passion fruit curd that becomes the bottom layer of the pie.  Finally you make the sweetened condensed grapefruit layer and spread it on top before chilling the whole thing to set it.

 
Grapefruit Pie (from Momofuku Milk Bar)
makes 1 pie

Ritz Crunch
1 sleeve Ritz crackers
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Pour the crackers in a medium bowl and crush them with your hands to one-quarter of their original size. Add the milk powder, sugar and salt, and toss to mix. Add the butter and toss to coat. As you toss, the butter will act as glue, binding the dry ingredients to the cracker pieces and creating small clusters.

 
Preheat oven to 275°F.

 
Press the Ritz crunch into a 10″ pie plate. Using your fingers and the palms of your hands, press the crunch in firmly, making sure to cover the bottom and sides evenly and completely. Put the tin on a sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes. Cool the crust completely.

Grapefruit Passion Curd
1/4 cup passion fruit puree
3 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon powdered gelatin
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large grapefruit
1 teaspoon canola oil

 
Put the passion fruit puree and sugar into a blender and blend until the sugar has dissolved. Add the egg and blend on low until the mixture is smooth and bright orange-yellow. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and clean the blender canister.

Bloom the gelatin in 2 tablespoons cold water.

 
Heat the passion fruit mixture over low heat, whisking regularly as it thickens. Once it starts to boil, transfer back to the blender. Add the bloomed gelatin, butter, and salt, and beat until the mixture is super-smooth. Transfer to a container and chill in the fridge until completely cool.

 

While it’s cooling, remove the rind of the grapefruit completely, leaving no white pith behind.  Then carefully remove each segment of grapefruit from its membrane by slicing down both sides of each segment along the membrane to the center of the fruit; the segments should come right out.

 
In a small saucepan heat the oil and grapefruit on low heat, stirring occasionally. After about 2 minutes, the warm oil will help separate and encapsulate the individual grapefruit ‘kernels’. Remove from heat and let the kernels cool slightly before proceeding.

 

Using a spoon or rubber spatula, gently stir the grapefruit kernels into the cooled passion fruit curd.

Using a spoon or an offset spatula, spread the grapefruit passion curd evenly over the bottom of the Ritz crust. Put the pie in the freezer to set the curd until firm, about 30 minutes.

Sweetened Condensed Grapefruit

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons grapefruit juice

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon citric acid

1 drop red food coloring

Combine the sweetened condensed milk, grapefruit juice, salt, citric acid and food coloring in a medium bowl and mix with a rubber spatula by stirring and folding over the mixture until it is homogeneous.

Using a spoon or an offset spatula, spread the sweetened condensed grapefruit on top of the curd, being careful not to mix the two layers and making sure the curd is entirely covered. Return to the freezer until ready to slice and serve. Wrapped (gently) in plastic, the pie can be frozen for up to 1 month.

 
I'd recommend thawing the pie a little before serving because the filling can get a little icy straight out of the freezer.  Other than that, this is a really great pie, kind of like the grown up version of a key lime pie.  I think it'd make a nice change from all the more traditional apple and pumpkin pies at a holiday meal.  And I still can't get over how cool it is that there are little individual kernels of grapefruit suspended in the passion fruit curd.  Isn't it so pretty?

 
Next:  Pretzel Ice Cream Pie with Homemade Magic Shell
Previously:  Duchikey (or Simplified Turducken)

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Cranberry Royale Sorbet

Last week I got to go on a Cranberry Farm Picking Experience with Colonial Lantern Tours.  I've gone apple picking and strawberry picking before, but this was the first time I've ever gone cranberry picking.  No, we didn't get to put on those rubber overalls and wade in a cranberry bog, but we did get to see how a flooded cranberry bog is harvested and also how cranberries are dry harvested.  Lastly, we got to hand pick our own cranberries!  Fun fact:  only 10% of cranberries are dry harvested, and only the dry harvested cranberries will be sold fresh in stores.  The other 90% are wet harvested and will go into cranberry products like cranberry sauce and cranberry juice.

 
Even before I went on the tour, I started looking up cranberry recipes to try.  The ones that caught my eye were a bittersweet cranberry brownie and a pecan topped cranberry cake.  Then my friend Ellen suggested that I make Jeni's Cranberry Royale Sorbet.  And boy, am I glad she did. 

Cranberry Royale Sorbet from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home
makes about 1 quart

2 grapefruits (you need enough to get 3/4 cup of juice; I needed 1 1/2 large grapefruits)
One 12-ounce bag cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar

 
Using a vegetable peeler, remove 3 large strips of zest from 1 of the grapefruits. Halve the grapefruits and squeeze 3/4 cup juice.

 

Combine the grapefruit juice, zest, cranberries, water, corn syrup, and sugar in a 4-quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil just until the cranberries begin to pop open, about 5 minutes. (My cranberries started to pop before it was anywhere close to boiling, so I just put a splatter screen on top of the saucepan and continued to heat the pan.) Remove from the heat and let cool.

 

Remove the grapefruit zest. If desired, puree the cranberry mixtures in batches, or leave unpureed for a chunkier sorbet.

 

Chill the mixtue and then freeze in an ice cream maker. Spin just until the consistency of very softly whipped cream.

 

Pack the sorbet into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

  

On the following page in her book, there's a gorgeous picture of an Oslo Ambrosia sundae, which consists of a meringue topped with raspberry lingonberry sauce, a scoop of the Cranberry Royale, and topped with cardamon scented whipped cream.  I just knew I had to try to make this sundae, if only because it looked so pretty.  Instead of making a raspberry lingonberry sauce, though, I just saved a few tablespoons of the sorbet base before it was frozen and added a spoonful of raspberry preserves.

 

I also used coconut whipped cream instead of dairy whipped cream and should be posting that recipe soon.  (Edited to add:  here's the post!)

 

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