Grape Cream Pie (or Tarts)

I am not a very competitive person. In school when they picked teams for sports I was always chosen last. Everyone knew I was not going to be of much help to their team in terms of winning. They knew it, I knew it, we accepted it, we moved on.

I think my lack of competitiveness is a fear of failure. I am pretty sure that there is always going to be someone out there who is better than me at whatever it is I am trying to do at that particular time. Don't get me wrong, I know I am a good cook or a good photographer or a good ....whatever..... I'm just willing to admit I am not the best. I don't need to enter a competition to find that out. If I don't compete I can continue to believe that I am awesome and what I have done IS the best in the world.

That being said, this is my roundabout way of saying I entered a competition this weekend.

A cooking competition.

A cooking competition where grapes were the focus of the recipes.

Not exactly my forte.

I prepared all last week by scouring the internet for interesting grape recipes and prepared several of them to find my entry.

So, with great fanfare (insert trumpets blaring here) I officially announce this week to be Grape Week here at joandsue.blogspot.com.

I will be posting the recipes I tried all last week, starting today with my official entry - Grape Cream Pie!

Grape Cream Pie

Ingredients

1/2 cup white sugar

6 Tbsp cornstarch

pinch salt

1/8 tsp cinnamon

2 1/2 cups grape juice

(I used fresh juice from grapes in our garden - you DON'T want grape juice with a lot of sugar in it)

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 9 inch, baked pie shell (or 24 tart shells)

2 cups whipping cream

Directions

Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon in a medium saucepan. Slowly whisk in grape juice - do not whisk in fast or you will create foam which makes the grape pudding go a little weird.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.
Remove from heat. Add lemon juice.
Pour into prepared pie shell or tart shells. 

Makes one pie or approx 24 tarts. 

Let sit until completely cool.
When cool - whip the cream until stiff peaks form and place on top of pie/tarts.

You can use extra grapes for decoration, if desired. 

Chill until ready to serve, at least 2 hours. You can make this a day ahead and it is fine. The crust will start to get soggy after about a day though so don't make it more than a day in advance.

Put as much or as little whipped cream on as you like. 

The color is very pretty. 

This was a really, really good pie. I'm glad I was inspired by the grape contest to try new recipes outside of my normal realm. If I had to compare it to another pie I would have to say lemon meringue pie. It is quite tart - which is weird because seeing that purple color lead me to believe it would be really sweet.

ADDENDUM: In case you were wondering, I did place third with this recipe. Yay! I do like to win, I'm not going to lie. I just don't like having to compete in order to win.
Stay tuned for more grape recipes this week!