DC's Best Pie!

It's the peak of summer, the farmers' markets are teeming with local berries and fresh stone fruit, and NPR just launched #pie week, meaning there's an utter explosion of pies and tarts on the interwebs. Aside from our usual blogging and baking, last week Kari and I got in on the action when Nothing-in-the-House's strawberry crème tart and Tarts by Tarts were featured as the cover photo and one of DC's best pie bakers on Refinery29. They also mentioned the pie blog's lemon icebox pie and Florida grapefruit-white chocolate pie. Oh so nice! We're in great company too, with Alexandria's Buzz Bakery, Baltimore-based Dangerously Delicious Pies, and farmers' market stand Whisked also in the mix.

At the moment, Tarts by Tarts' future together is sadly uncertain, and we'll be taking a hiatus as Kari is Maine-bound for a goat cheese-making apprenticeship (I will miss my tartner so!), we'll continue to keep you updated on our current baking and future projects via the Tarts by Tarts site. In the meantime, I've been scheming plans to keep the Tarts by Tarts spirit alive in a new endeavor--a pie CSA? pop-up shop? baked goods bicycle delivery service? For more on those developments, keep your eyes glued to this space, as well as on the Nothing-in-the-House Facebook & Twitter for upcoming projects. As always, feel free to e-mail us at tartsbytarts at gmail dot com or me at nothinginthehousepie at gmail dot com if you're interested in collaborating, catering service, or placing a one-off order. We'd love to work with you, whether at a bean suppa on a Maine farm, a rooftop deck party in DC, or anywhere in between.

Florida Grapefruit-White Chocolate Pie

A couple of weekends ago I found myself HOME ALONE-- a rare occurrence in a household of six. To be honest, I was actually joined in my solitude by a huge basket of ripe Florida grapefruit, left behind by my housemate Juanita, accompanied with a note reading "SAVE ME!". Kari had already spoiled all of us with a grapefruit-ginger meringue tart (of which I indulged myself, once or twice) which was still sitting in the fridge, but there was still plenty o' grapefruit for the taking. So on that Sunday, after somewhat of a creepy Saturday night in a big drafty house, I stationed myself in the kitchen determined to put a whole lotta citrus to good use.

I started out by making ginger-grapefruit marmalade. For Christmas, my very generous and sweet brother got me the beautiful River Cottage Preserves Handbook by Pam Corbin. I have only ever tried making Corbin's apple herb and flower jelly and apple cider butter recipes and that was via my friend Lora's copy; I had yet to innaugurate my own edition. Inside its pages, I found a recipe for Seville orange marmalade with a grapefruit variation--I added some ginger et puis, voila! But grapefruit still remained. Hence, this pie.

There was already a grapefruit meringue tart in the house, so I needed something a lil' different. I thought about trying a grapefruit variation of this rustic blood orange tart, but wanted to branch out with somethin' fresh (and maybe a little weird?)! Hence, this "Florida citrus pie" (which I am calling, I believe more aptly, a Florida grapefruit-white chocolate pie.

Warning--this pie is a little strange! Especially if you, like me, aren't all that into white chocolate. But with each tasting (there were a few), it grew on me. On the other hand, the tang of the grapefruit and the tang of the white chocolate is kind weird, ya know? One resounding success of this pie is THE CRUST. It's incredible. I even used about half pecans, instead of all-macadamia nut, and it was still bangin'. I'll definitely be using it in other recipes in the future. I also think this recipe would be amazing with oranges, especially blood oranges. Yum. In any case, if you've got a lot of grapefruit on your hands and love white chocolate, give this one a whirl. It's real fresh. And it looks great.

Florida Grapefruit-White Chocolate Pie
Adapted from Bon Appetit via Epicurious

Ingredients
For crust:
7 oz. roasted macadamia nuts (I used 3 oz. pecans & 4 oz. macadamia nuts as a cost-saving measure!)
3/4 c. ground gingersnap cookies
1/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For filling:
2 c. fresh pink grapefruit juice
1/4 c. + 1 Tblsp. sugar
1 1/4 tsp. unflavored gelatin
1/4 c. fresh lime juice
9 oz. white chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)
1/4 c. + 1 1/4 c. chilled whipping cream

For topping:
1 c. chilled whipping cream
2 Tblsp. sugar
7 thin lime slices (optional)
8 oz. white chocolate shaved into curls (optional)

Directions
For crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Finely chop nuts in food processor. Add ground gingersnap cookies, sugar, and butter and pulse until moist crumbs form. Press mixture firmly into bottom and sides of a greased and floured 9-inch pie pan. Bake crust 10 minutes or until golden. Let cool on a wire rack.

For filling:
1. Boil grapefruit juice and 1/4 c. sugar in a heavy medium saucepan over high heat until reduced to about 3/4 cup, about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatin over lime juice and gently whisk. Let stand 10 minutes. Once grapefruit mixture is reduced, turn heat to low, and add gelatin mixture, white chocolate, and 1/4 c. cream. Whisk until white chocolate and gelatin melt and mixture is smooth. Pour into a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until cool but not set, about 2 hours, whisking and scraping down sides of bowl occasionally.

2. Meanwhile, whip 1 1/4 c. whipping cream until soft peaks form. After mixture has chilled for about 2 hours, fold whipped cream into filling until combined. Pour into baked pie crust and return to the fridge while you prepare the topping.

For topping:
1. Beat cream and sugar until stiff peaks form. Spoon whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Line pie with symmetrically placed lime slices, then pipe rosettes of cream around the edge. Fill center with additional whipped cream, and sprinkle white chocolate curls on top, if desired. Pie should be served chilled and can be made 4 hours ahead.