I’ve been having pie on the brain lately. Peach pie. Strawberry pie. Apple pie. And especially, grape pie. There’s something about the impending approach of fall that drives me into pie mode like no other season does.
It’s been two years since I made a Concord grape pie. It was a daunting task to remove seeds from four pounds of concord grapes to fill two pies. This year, I discovered Thomcord grapes — a hybrid of Concord and Thompson grapes. Initially, I was skeptical about the rich Concord taste being diluted in this unknown hybrid. But upon tasting the grapes, I noticed it was a bit sweeter, the skin wasn’t a tough as Concord grapes and more importantly, no seeds!
This recipe is slightly modified from the original and uses less sugar. While the color is slightly less intense than using full-on Concord grapes, the end result is just as pretty and sure to impress. Don’t forget to add a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
Thomcord grapes are currently available at Specialty Produce or your finer grocery store and are equally perfect eaten “as is.”
Thomcord Grape Pie
About 2 lbs seedless Thomcord grapes
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 pie shell
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Remove grapes from stem and rinse under water.
In a large pan, heat the grapes over medium heat. Using a spatula, gently press down on grapes until the skin separates from the pulp and the juices start to release. Continue to heat 15-20 minutes or until most of the skin has been separated and the pulp is slightly pureed.
Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.
Add sugar, flour, corn starch and lemon juice to cooled filling and mix until combined.
Pour the filling into a prepared pie shell, cover with lattice top or decorative pieces of dough and bake for 45-50 minutes.
Chill in refrigerator for 4 hours and serve with vanilla ice cream.
My Burning Kitchen... on the road 
I’ve been eyeing the concord grapes — or was, didn’t see them last time I shopped. The only thing I’ve baked with them is foccacia which was decent, but this pie? Oh, goodness. And the idea of not having to remove all of those seeds is great! My taste buds just squelched. ; )
Concord grapes with foccacia seem interesting — I can’t seem to wrap my mind around how it would taste. And yes! Seedless grapes are a godsend!!
I can now say I am a fan of grape pie! It’s like blueberry pie but, uh, more grape-y. And I love your little leaf cutouts on top!
Yes, they do seem kind of blueberry pie-ish but purple. The leaf cutouts are a way for me to disguise the fact I don’t know how to make a lattice top.
ooh, i’ve never had grape pie but i know i already would love it! i also did not know about the marriage of thompson and concord grapes. yummm, gotta look for those!
Thomcord grapes are so good! I bet healthier too since the skins have a dark hue and (maybe) more antioxidants. I don’t know how long they’ll be in season so look for them!
I love the color of that pie.
I agree! It’s fantastic!
I feel like Homer Simpson staring at that pie, “ummmmm, pieeeeee (insert drooling here)!”
I love the fall especially since my grandma makes persimmon pie for just about every family gathering once the fruit starts falling from the tree in her yard. So good and a nice change from apple!
I love persimmons! Never thought about it in a pie…
It’s really awesome and a nice change-up from apple (and basically follows the same recipe). It really gives the subtle flavors a chance to shine, especially if you’re not a fan of fresh persimmons like my husband.
Since she has a giant tree, we’re inundated with persimmons through the fall. Even with extended family stopping by to pick up bags of fruit, she still has a lot left over. So, she got to experimenting years ago and the pie was one of the winners with our family. Since she uses pre-made pie crust, it’s a relatively quick and easy Thanksgiving dessert (really important since she’s pushing 80 and still insists on cooking up enough for an army!).
Oh! I’m seriously going to try this. My husband doesn’t like persimmons either so this might be a good way to mix it up. Thanks again for implanting this idea in my head!!
I tried this recipe. The taste is very similar to Concord grape pie. However, Thomcord grapes have a lot of tiny white seeds in them. I think cooking the pulp in regular Concord grapes and sieving to get the seeds out before combining with the pulp with the skins is way easier than picking out all the little hard white seeds in the mashed cooked version with Thomcord grapes. That took me the better part of an hour and I’m sure I missed a bunch! Maybe the Thomcord grape seeds soften as they cook but I didn’t want to chance it, as I usually make pie fillings ahead and freeze them until I feel like baking a pie.
grape pie? i wanna marry you!
LOL! Will you provide me with endless Thomcord grapes? If so, then the answer is YES!
You can get Thomcord’s at Trader Joe’s, Stater Bros, Some Safeway’s & Publix and various supermarkets in Montreal and at Coop in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Good to know. Thank you for the heads up!