A no-bake grapefruit pie that is creamy and has a tart, sweet taste. Easy to make too!
When we moved into our house last year I was bummed out b because the only citrus tree on the property was a yellow grapefruit tree. I thought I didn’t like grapefruit. Seriously, I just gave it away to family and friends until one day my sister-in-law text me “your grapefruit are so sweet and delicious, thank you!”. Well if they were “sweet” I had to try them. And you know what?! I liked it! I just cut them open, and use a spoon to scoop out the sections. It does have a slight bitter taste to me but they are weirdly delicious. And good for you too! Plus, hello, we have a tree full of them in our backyard. My son loves grapefruit juice so, yay! Since I have a new found love of grapefruit, I was excited to make this pie. After I made this lemon pie a few weeks ago, my mom remembered a grapefruit pie that her sister used to make. The recipe comes from my Uncle (my Mom’s sister’s husband) who got it from his mother, who got it from her husband, who got it while working at a citrus packing house as an electrician) ha! How is that for a recipe chain. Speaking of, do you remember those emails that used to go around, where you sent a couple recipe and you were supposed to get a bunch emailed back? I feel like I did that but never got many in return? Random tangent, that’s how I am. I like to jump from topic to topic.
Anyways, this is a tart, sweet, cold, no-bake pie! I love a no bake recipe (even though my blog is gall BAKED in AZ ;)). I obviously have yellow grapefruit tree, but you could also use a pink grapefruit. It is not a really firm pie, but it will set up after it is chilled enough to dish it out. It is more like a pudding pie. I hope you give this recipe a try. Are you a grapefruit fan?! Maybe you are and just don’t know it yet!
- For the crust:
- 52 vanilla wafer cookies, divided
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 3 Tablespoons butter, melted
- For the pie:
- 2-3 yellow (or pink) grapefruits, washed
- 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice
- Crush 36 vanilla wafers in a plastic bag with a rolling pin (or in a food processor) till crumbled. Place in a small bowl and add the sugar and melted butter. Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9" pie plate (I used glass). Then place a whole vanilla wafer into the crust (to hold it in place) all around the side of the pie dish.
- In a medium sized bowl, stir the sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice together and set aside.
- Cut the grapefruit in half (think bike wheel), then carefully cut out the sections (I cut all the way around, between the pulp and the peel, then cut each section out. Place in a bowl (you want about 1 cup of the grapefruit sections). There will be a lot of juice leftover from the grapefruit but try to keep the sections together as much as possible. Place (don't pour) you don't want to add more juice, add just the pieces of grapefruit sections to the sweetened condensed milk. Gently stir.
- Pour mixture into the prepared pie dish and spread out evenly. Refrigerate until chilled and serve with whipped cream and additional vanilla wafers if desired.
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