This recipe comes from James Beard-nominated Michigan chef and former farmer Abra Berens, who released her cookbook Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit on April 4, 2023.
With her forthcoming cookbook Pulp, Berens continues her "practical guide" cookbook series, offering a comprehensive guide to incorporating fruit into both sweet and savory cooking. Organized alphabetically by fruit, the book shares tips for buying, preserving and cooking a variety of common fruits, complemented by farmer profiles to connect readers to the people behind the food they buy.
Pulp features a comprehensive “Baker’s Toolkit” section, where Berens outlines base recipes that can be easily adapted to include whatever fruit is on hand, from breads and batters to cakes and curds, as well as pie fillings and puddings. Among those is the following recipe for Grape Custard Pie.
"I’ve made traditional Concord grape pie exactly once in my life, and while it was delicious, it was not (to my mind) worth the fiddle of peeling half of the grapes and seeding all of them. This pie, on the other hand, comes together quickly because you don’t need to peel a single grape. If you don’t have hazelnut meal, use almond flour, or substitute traditional rolled, flaky pie crust. I prefer using red grapes for this pie because the color shows and red grapes have a tannic flavor in their skin that pushes back against the sweet. their skin that pushes back against the sweet."
Grape Custard Pie
- 2 cups [320 g] red grapes, preferably Concord, seeds removed
- 1 recipe Hazelnut or Pretzel Crust
- 1 recipe Brown Butter
- Custard Batter
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F [180°C].
- Place the grapes in the par-baked crust. Pour the custard over the top and redistribute the grapes.
- Bake until the custard is puffed and just set, about 60 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and cool before serving.
- You can serve warm but it will be a bit runny. The custard needs to cool completely to set firmly.
Brown Butter Custard Batter
"My friend and mentor Sandra Holl of Floriole Cafe & Bakery in Chicago uses this filling to bind tart plum galettes. It is simple enough that even I can make it and it pairs well with any number of tart fruits, making it the perfect addition to the Baker’s Toolkit."
Makes 1 cup
- 8 Tbsp (4 oz [120 g]) butter
- ½ cup [100 g] sugar
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup [35 g] all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp salt
In a small frying pan, warm the butter over medium-high heat until it foams and then starts to brown, about 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until pale, thick, and fluffy, 3 minutes. Add the flour and salt. Whisk to remove any lumps. Add the brown butter and whisk to combine. Use immediately, or store, covered, in the fridge for up to a week.
Hazelnut Crust
"This crust comes from the long line of graham cracker and cookie crusts, but uses hazelnut meal as the base. Should you want to make it with graham crackers, do so by all means. If you can’t find hazelnut meal, use almond flour."
Makes one 9-inch crust
- 2 cups [240 g] hazelnut flour or meal
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg
Preheat the oven to 350°F [180°C]. Grease a 9 in [23 cm] pie pan.
In a medium bowl, combine the hazelnut flour, sugar, and salt. Mix in the egg to bring the dough together. Press into the prepared pie pan in an even layer. Bake for 15 pan in an even layer. Bake for 15 minutes for par-baked or 25 minutes for par-baked or 25 minutes for fully baked. Cool completely before filling.
Pretzel Crust
"Claudia Fleming, through her iconic cookbook The Last Course, first introduced me to leveraging salt to play against sweet in desserts. Then my friend and fellow cook Danielle Jamnik introduced me to her family’s pretzel pie: a pretzel crumb crust topped with a very Midwestern cheesecake-style dessert. The pretzel crust quickly became my desert island dessert of choice."
Makes one 9-inch crust
- 3 cups [120 g] pretzels
- finely ground or smashed ¾ cup (6 oz [70 g]) butter melted
- 3 Tbsp sugar
Preheat the oven to 350°F [180°C]. Lightly grease a 9 in [23 cm] pie pan.
In a medium bowl, mix the pretzels, butter, and sugar until it comes together. Press into the prepared pie pan. Bake for 10 minutes for par-baked or 20 minutes for fully baked. Cool completely before filling.
Reprinted from Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit by Abra Berens, with permission by Chronicle Books, 2023.
