Friday Pie-Day: Grape Pie

Get ready for another weird and quirky pie! This was actually one of our favorites though, and not very difficult to prepare! It is definitely one we want to repeat sometime.

Here is the story… After our first year of making a pie every month, we joked about some quirky pies we could make. I think some of our options were “mayonnaise pie,” “butter pie,” and… yep – grape pie. But the more we talked about it, the more excited we got about the possibility of a grape pie.

I found tons of recipes using Concord grapes, which would have to be de-seeded, separated from skins, and/or mashed in a blender. Too expensive, and too much work, I said. And then my dad found this recipe using just plain old ordinary grapes, and they didn’t even have to be chopped up! All the ingredients were things we had on hand (well, we did go out and buy lots of grapes). It was nominated!

The first step was cooking the grapes on the stovetop with some sugar, brown sugar, salt, butter, honey, vanilla, and lemon juice. Once you remove it from the heat, add flour.

While the filling cools, mix up some oatmeal with brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and egg to make a yummy topping. Except you spoon two thirds of the “topping” in the bottom of the pie pan (over the bottom crust) before you even add the filling.

The grapes then get spooned on top. I will admit that this sounded pretty crazy – a grape and oatmeal combination, but it was actually pretty delicious!

Next, spoon the rest of the topping mixture on top of the grapes.

Finally, top with a lattice crust and brush it with egg.

And after two sessions (one covered, one uncovered) in the oven, it came out looking beautifully browned and smelling heavenly.

This was after we allowed our pie to sit for only one hour. Take the recommended 2 hours (or more), folks. It still tasted great, but I bet it would have thickened up a lot more if could have controlled ourselves and let it cool longer!

 

Grape Pie (recipe from Pillsbury)

pastry for double-crusted pie

4 cups red seedless grapes

1 cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

½ tsp. salt

3 T. butter

2 T. honey

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. lemon juice

¼ cup all-purpose flour

TOPPING:

1½ cups old-fashioned oats

¾ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg, beaten

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place bottom crust in pie pan.
2. In 4-quart saucepan, place all filling ingredients except flour. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, 10 minutes or until grapes are tender. Stir in flour; set aside.
3. In medium bowl, mix all topping ingredients except egg until crumbly. Spoon 2/3 of topping into crust-lined pan. Spoon filling over topping. Sprinkle remaining 1/3 of topping over pie filling.
4. To make lattice top, cut second crust into ½-inch-wide strips. Place half of the strips across filling in pie plate. Weave remaining strips with first strips to form lattice. Trim ends of strips even with edge of bottom crust. Fold trimmed edge of bottom crust over ends of strips, forming a high stand-up rim. Seal and flute. Brush lattice strips with egg.
5. Place sheet of foil over pie to prevent excessive browning; bake 20 minutes. Remove foil; bake 15-20 minutes longer or until topping is golden brown. Cool at least 2 hours before serving.