Pie #25: FFA Pie (Grapefruit Pie)

I think I have finally found a pie Perry won't eat!  Before the big reveal, let me remind you that he didn't have a problem with Pie #5 that had zucchini,  Pie #8 that had corn milk, or Pie #16 that had green tomatoes.  One would think that after all these weird ingredients that he'd be up for anything, but one would be wrong.  Perry is not excited about eating...Grapefruit Pie.

Grapefruit seems to be a food that people either love or hate.  I love it - Perry hates it.  Granted, the pith and inner membrane of the grapefruit are very bitter.  However, when these are removed and you bite into a juicy section of pure grapefruit flesh...WOW - an excellent combination of sweet and tart!

You may be wondering, "Why grapefruit pie?  Have you run out of ideas?"  This pie actually comes from surplus rather than from a shortage.  As mentioned above, I love grapefruit.  Thus when Perry's cousins are selling fruit to support their FFA Chapter, I always purchase a partial case.  However I was a bit overeager this year, and ended up with an entire case!  Yes folks, that means I have 40+ grapefruits to savor...or at least to eat as fast as I can while they are still good!  Kathy mentioned that she had eaten jello recently with grapefruit pieces in it.  Combining this idea with the idea of strawberry jello pie that I enjoyed as a kid, I had the pie of the week!

I have good childhood memories of Wanda standing at the sink sectioning grapefruits for the family to share.  You can find a plethora of tutorials online teaching you how to section a grapefruit, but none are quite like Wanda's method.  When sectioning grapefruit, I always use her method.  In case you are interested, there are step-by-step instructions and pictures below.

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1. Peel the tough outer skin from the grapefruit - there is no need to pull off all the extra white pith that remains.  Separate the grapefruit into two parts.









2. Slide a knife just under the top layer of skin in the center of the fruit. 









3. Once you make a slit in the center, the skin will pull away easily from that section.  Pull away all skin covering the section on which you are working.  There may remain a bit of skin on the outside edge of that section - this is ok!







4. Separate the exposed flesh from the remaining sections.  Two techniques that work well are sliding your thumb under the flesh near the middle of the fruit (in the area where you made the slit), or leveraging the fruit from the outside edge (see picture).







5. Lastly, pull the fruit from the skin that remained on the outside edge of the section.  Repeat from Step 2 until the entire grapefruit is sectioned.








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This method takes a bit of practice, but eventually you can do a whole grapefruit quickly without damaging any of the sections.  Sectioning grapefruit for this pie is a good way to practice - you need to section four grapefruits and it doesn't matter if the flesh comes out in small pieces instead of whole sections.

When browsing for recipes to use, I found a recipe on a blog entitled Making a Living.  This recipe uses strawberry jello, which masks the grapefruit flavor.  For some this may be a positive thing...for me, not so much.  Therefore, I chose to create my own recipe using non-flavored gelatine and fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice.

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Grapefruit Pie

Ingredients:
1 9-inch blind-baked pie crust

6 grapefruits
2, 1-oz. envelopes Knox (unflavored) Gelatine
1/2 c. sugar

whipped topping (see Pie #3)

Pie Algorithm:
1. Place a medium-sized strainer inside a bowl.  Peel and section 4 grapefruits (see method above).  As you are sectioning the grapefruits, tear the sections into small, thumb-width sized chunks.  Place these sections in the strainer.  When finished sectioning, set this bowl aside to collect the excess grapefruit juice dripping from the chunked sections.

2. Juice the remaining two grapefruits.  (I ended up running my juice through a strainer to collect all the small seeds that fell into the juice.)  Put 1/2 cup of the juice in a large heat-proof bowl - set aside.

3. Combine sugar and 1 cup of remaining juice in a saucepan.  Place on medium-high heat until boiling, stirring occasionally.  Approximately 1 minute before boiling (make your best guess on the timing), sprinkle the two Knox packets over the cold juice waiting in the large bowl.

4. When juice mixture boils, stir it into the cold juice and gelatine mixture.  Stir until gelatine dissolves completely - around 5 minutes.  Let juice cool slightly, then mix in the sectioned grapefruit.  Pour grapefruit and gelatine into pie crust.  (Any remaining mixture can be put in a bowl to eat separately!)  Place pie in fridge and wait for gelatine to solidify.

5. Cover with whipped topping before serving.

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Biting into this pie is like biting into a solid chunk of pie-shaped grapefruit.  The flesh is very juicy, and the gelatine blends in nicely.  For someone seeking a very sweet dessert, more sugar would be needed.  The whipped topping helped with the tartness, though I would be happy to eat the pie without the topping!  As is, the flavor of the pie is simply the flavor of the grapefruit.  For what more could I ask?