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Thursday, July 26, 2007

A Microplane Testimonial

Grapefruit Custard Tart from the Inn at Little Washington



Making the crust is not featured in the video. It's a simple press-in crust made from 2/5 cups finely ground pecans, 1/2 stick (4T) of butter, melted, and 3/4 cup sugar. Mix it all together, press into pie plate and bake for 10 min at 400 degrees. I think a better crust would be 50/50 ground pecans and crushed graham crackers. It would give the crust a little more cohesiveness which I like in a crust. It's up to you.

Recipe

Ingredients are shown in chronological order so some may be repeated later in a recipe. This is the case with the grapefruit juice in this recipe.

2t gelatin
3T grapefruit juice
4T butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
4 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup grapefruit juice
zest of one grapefruit
2 - 4 oz chocolate, preferably dark chocolate
1 pecan crust (see recipe above)

Sprinkle gelatin over 3T of grapefruit juice and set aside
Melt butter in 2 qt saucepan over medium heat
Mix in sugar until dissolved
Add orange juice, 1/2 cup of grapefruit juice, cream, eggs and zest.
Stir to combine and reduce heat to medium low
Continue stirring until custard has thickened and lightly coats the back of a wooden spoon
Once custard has thickened, scrape gelatin mixture into custard, stir to dissolve and then set aside off heat.
Allow to cool to room temperature

While custard is cooling, melt chocolate in dbl boiler or microwave until it is runny like chocolate sauce
With a china bristle brush available by the 10pk at Home Depot for about 3 bucks, brush chocolate onto cooled pecan crust. Cover all surfaces except top edge.

BEFORE ALLOWING CHOCOLATE TO COOL (Video indicates otherwise), pour cooled custard into pie crust.
Place pie in refrigerator until set, approximately 2 - 4 hrs later.
Garnish with whipped cream and mint sprig or leaf.

Note: I used canned whipped cream in the video and I'm sure you all looked on in horror. Normally I whip my own for the obvious reasons, but the cream available that day was just not fresh enough so I didn't want to take any chances. Though the food I prepare for video technically doesn't even have to be eaten, I treat my on-camera time as if I were preparing for actual guests.

Thursday, July 19, 2007