Grape Pie

 

Makes 8 servings

Grape Pie

    for the filling

  • 2 quarts concord grape with stems (approximately 5 lbs)
  • ¾ teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • ¼ cup flour
  • 1¼ cup sugar
  • pinch salt
  • 1 apple, Granny Smith preferred
  • 2 Tablespoons cornstarch

    • for the crumb

  • ½ cup flour
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup cold butter

  • 1 prepared deep dish pie crust

Special equipment

Food mill
Food processor
Pastry cutter

Method

Rinse grapes. Pop them out of their skins into a deep saucepan, but reserve the skins. Cook the naked grpes over medium heat until it comes to a boil and the grapes turn white. Meanwhile, give the skins a couple of spins in the food processor to chop. You don’t want to pureé them, just chop them. Remove the boiled grapes and press through the food mill to remove the seeds. Add the skins and lemon juice to the grape pureé. At this stage, you can freeze the filling for long-term storage.

Preheat the oven to 375°. Make the crumb topping by cutting the butter into the flour and sugar with a pastry tool.

Peel and grate the apple. Squeeze away all the juice you can, and add to the grape pureé. Mix flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt, make a well in the center, and slowly stir in the grape pureé. Pour into your pie crust. Top with crumbs, place the pie on a baking sheet to catch the inevitable spillover, and bake 50-55 minutes. Serve at room temperature.

Notes

The pectin-laden apple fiber and cornstarch, while not original to the recipe, help solidify the filling, else you have a very loose pie.

We used to only serve this in a short window in fall when the grapes were available, but freezing the filling makes it available year round, whenever you want to surprise guests.

Suggestions

We meekly admit that we did once line the pie shell with peanut butter for a PB&J pie, and we reluctantly admit that it was pretty good.