Sunday, May 13, 2012

Breadfruit pie experiment

I was grocery shopping today and spotted this ugly little breadfruit lying there in a lonely looking unloved pile, I picked one up and it smelled citrusy. Right here, I will point out that if you are allergic or sensitive to latex you need to take a pass on this fruit altogether. I didn't know this, and found out only after I ate it, and I googled it after my throat started to have an irritated reaction.
Anyway, before that happened....
 I brought it home and cut it open, tasting a slice- only to learn that it tasted like the most boring potato-apple ever.
So I Googled it. It's a Hawaiian kind of fruit Turns out most people don't eat breadfruit in Hawaii because it's so darn boring!  I did learn that you can use it like a potato, but I was determined to find a pie recipe.
 I ended up boiling it in salty water, which every recipe I saw called for. I did see that you can use it as a topping for sheppard's pie instead of potatos. Quicker, since you're peeling just one larger thing and it cooked up pretty rapidly.
So I would wash, peel, chop one decent sized breadfruit- you only need 2 cups of the flesh. Once it's chopped up put it into a pot with salty water and boil until tender.
 Meanwhile start on the pieshell.
Use 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/3 cup shortening, shake of salt and 4-5 TBSP of cold water.   Add the shortening to the flour and mix/mash  together with a fork, or cut through it with two knives until it's kind of pebbly looking/blended.
Add the water 1tbsp at a time until you can make a ball from the pastry and roll it out and put into your 9 inch pie pan, trimming excess.
Set aside.    Preheat oven to 425.F
Mash your breadfruit until it's very mushed- you could use a food processor for this to make it smoother.
Mix in 2 beaten eggs
3/4 cup of Brown Sugar (white is ok if it's all you have)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk.

Once it's well mixed together, pour into your pie crust and bake for 15 minutes at 425.
Then reduce heat to 350 for 40-50 minutes until done.
Sprinkle with nutmeg or serve with whipped cream.


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