Grapefruit Pie

The other day I went shopping and find a big bag of grapefruits at a very good price and It remind me about the GRAPEFRUIT PIE!!!  I haven't make it in a long time, and it immediately  bring me a lot of memories when we were living in South Texas.  

South Texas is famous for her oranges and grapefruits, besides other delicious fruits and vegetables like watermelon, broccoli, etc, etc. 

My friends and I used to go for lunch to Renee's, it was a very lovely restaurant-boutique, the food was delicious and our favorite dessert was the grapefruit pie, we all fight for a piece because they always run out of it. 
It is very refreshing and it is not too sweet, I bet you will love it. 

Here is the recipe:

CRUST

You can buy an already baked pie crust ( 9 in) or you can made yours, for this pie I like to use this recipe. 

INGREDIENTS:

  1/2 cup of cold butter

  1 1/4 cups of flour

  1 beaten egg yolk

  2-3 tbsp ice water

  1 tsp of light brown sugar

1.-  In a mixing bowl put the flour, sugar and  butter, knead the dough using a pastry blender until pieces are pea size. 





2.- Mix together the egg yolk and 1 tbsp of ice water, gradually add this mixture to the flour mixture.  Gently knead the dough until a ball start to form, add more water if necessary.

3.-  In a lightly floured surface roll the dough to form a circle 12 in diameter. 

The circle does not have to be perfect, LOL

Wrap the dough around your rolling pin and unroll it over your tart pan as shown in the pictures. 








Press the dough against the edges of the pan. 





4.-  Preheat the oven at 450° F.

5.-  Cover your tart pan with the dough and place some parchment paper in the center on the pan and pour beans over it. 



6.-  Bake for 8 minutes and after that , take out your crust, lower the temperature of the oven at 350° F, take away the beans and the paper and bake for 15 minutes more.  Let it cool.


FILLING:

  3/4/ cup of sugar

  1 3/4 cup of water

  2 tbsp of cornstarch

  1/8 tsp of salt

  1- package of strawberry jello ( 3 oz )

 4 red grapefruit, sectioned and strained *

 1/2 cup maraschino cherries

*  The following pictures show how I peeled and sectioned the grapefruits, it is very important to strain the grapefruit pulp.

1.-  Mix the sugar, salt and water in a pan and cook for 2 minutes, add the cornstarch, mix and bring it to a boil.  Add the jello mixture, mix until dissolved.  Let it cool.




2.-  Pour out half of the jello mixture over the pie crust and then add the sectioned grapefruit, let it set for some minutes and then add the rest of the mix, and let it set. You can add more grapefruit  and some cherries to decorate the pie.  













I bet you are going to love it!!

If you are looking for a light version of the pie, you can skip the crust and make grapefruit pie filling cups, they are delicious as well. 

ENJOY!!!