As you might have gathered by now, us Caroline’s enjoy food that is not just sweet, but sweet with a twist, such as sour, spicy, salty etc.  I’ve had my eye on the grapefruit custard pie in my Four and Twenty Blackbirds pie book for some time now, and Caroline 1.0 was in town so making a new exciting pie was first on the agenda.  But to our dismay, one of the grapefruits we were planning to use was no good, so we scaled my orange tree (the only ones left are up high in the very middle) and ended up combining our grapefruit juice with backyard orange for a bright, subtly sweet, citrusy, dreamboat of a pie that was fun to make and even more fun to eat.

Traditional 9″ Pie Crust – par baked (about 5-6 minutes at 450 if you’re using ours)

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
3 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit and orange juice
a few dashes angostura bitters (totally optional)
1 cup heavy cream

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 325.  Place your par-baked pie shell on a rimmed baking sheet.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, salt and melted butter.  Whisk in the eggs and egg yolk one at a time, blending well after each addition.  Whisk in the grapefruit/orange juice, bitters if using, and heavy cream.  Strain the filling through a fine sieve directly into the pie shell.  Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 47-55 minutes, rotating 180 degrees when the edges start to set, 30-35 minutes through baking.  The pie is finished when the edges are set and puffed slightly and the center is no longer liquid but still quite wobbly.  Don’t overbake or the custard will separate.  The filling will continue to cook and set after the pie is removed from the oven.  Allow to cool completely about 2-3 hours and serve at room temperature or cool.

Recipe adapted from Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book