Oh man. You have to try this. Currant chiffon pie. If you don’t have currants, sub another juice like lemon, orange, or grape or raspberry or…anything. Just make this pie, once in your life. It’s creamy, fluffy, melty, and tart, the perfect foil for a flaky pastry crust or graham cracker crust.

Seriously. Dude. Eat this pie and die happy.

This pie will drive you to eat when you’re not hungry. One slice is good, two better, three divine. Consume only in public or with other safeguards nearby.

reverse engineering a mid-twentieth century recipe

Grandma (Dad’s mom) used to make this currant pie, in a convenience-food version using lemon Jell-O and Dream Whip. I wanted to recreate it using less-processed foods, and it was a bit of a challenge at first.

First, we always called it currant cream pie.

Reseaching cream pies on the internet taught me three things:

1. Always turn on SafeSearch when googling phrases like “cream pie.” I cannot emphasize this enough.

2. It wasn’t a cream pie. It was a chiffon pie.

3. No currant juice-specific pie recipes exist anywhere on the intertubes. They all used whole berries. Which didn’t make sense to me, as currants have nasty raspberry-like seeds. And you know what I think of those.

I turned to a cookbook I always seem to forget about: the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. It’s not trendy, vegetarian, whole grain, or frou frou, so it languishes on the shelf. What it does have, however, is basic recipes for everything, in spades. And it had a few chiffon pie recipes. The ones closest to my needs were a lemon chiffon pie and an orange chiffon pie.

Currants are not as tart as lemons, nor as sweet as orange juice, so I had to play with the sugar amounts a bit. The recipes also differed in that one called for 4 eggs, one for 3. So I did a trial run, with 4 eggs and a cup of sugar. It filled a 10-inch pie plate to the brim, but was a bit sweet and a bit eggy.

So I tried again, with the result here, using 3 eggs and 3/4 cup sugar. Dad and I agreed you could cut another 1/8 to 1/4 cup of sugar for more tartness.

on the bright side, you’ll master beating egg whites and whipping cream

Chiffon pies rely on gelatin for stability…

…beaten egg whites for their airiness…

…and most add some whipped cream for, well, creaminess.

In this recipe you’ll do all those, plus fold in the egg whites and whipped cream. The links to tips for these techniques are in the recipe as well.

currant chiffon pie

Linda thinks this is still a little eggy. I think that’s due to the egg yolks in the gelatin mixture. I’ll try that without the yolks sometime, but I really like it like this too so I’m in no hurry.

prep: consider this a 3-part recipe
to table: 2-1/2 hours
servings: 8

All the ingredients:

3 egg yolks
1 cup currant juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
red food coloring
3 egg whites
1/8 to 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, NOT ultra-pasteurized if possible
1 baked pastry shell or no-bake graham cracker crust shell, 9 or 10 inch

1. Make the currant-gelatin mixture

Whisk together the egg yolks, currant juice, and lemon juice in a small bowl. Mix the gelatin, salt, and sugar in a small saucepan. Stir currant mixture into the gelatin mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and begins to boil. It’s ready when the color changes from dark pink to pepto pink, and the liquid begins to “swell up” in the pan. You’ll know it when you see it.

Transfer the currant-gelatin mixture to a bowl and add 1 drop of red food coloring, if desired. Chill currant-gelatin mixture in refrigerator, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes — until it’s the consistency of corn syrup, or unbeaten egg whites.

2. Beat the egg whites

Use a stand mixer. It’s just easier. Pour 3 room-temperature egg whites into the bowl, and beat on high speed using the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. While running the mixer on high speed, slowly pour in 1/8 to 1/4 cup sugar, and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Fold the egg whites into the currant-gelatin mixture. This means don’t stir. Just use a big spatula and encourage the whites and the currant mixture to meld together. Imagine you’re a chaperone at a junior high school dance, with girls lining one wall and boys the other, and it’s your job to gently get them to meet.

3. Make the whipped cream

If you have two mixer bowls, consider yourself lucky. If you don’t, wash out and dry your bowl and whisk attachment, and put them into the freezer for 5 minutes. You want everything to be icy cold when whipping cream. Remove the bowl and whisk from the freezer and connect them to the mixer again.

I only mention to avoid ultra pasteurized cream because it’s not as perfect for whipping, but it will work just fine. Add the 1/2 cup of cream to the bowl, and beat at high speed until soft peaks form. Notice the picture; I went too far to stiff peaks and the whipped cream wouldn’t incorporate smoothly into the pie mixture.

Fold your soft peak-stage whipped cream into the pie mixture until it’s all happy and one color.

Spoon currant pie mixture into the pie shell, and chill until set, about 45 minutes.

Variations: Try this with any juice: lemon, orange, grape, raspberry, you name it. Adjust sugar according to the sweetness of the juice. Currant juice is about midway between lemon and orange. Add some grated lemon zest to the currant-gelatin mixture.

Check out this awesome bowl Dad found under the house.

Under the house, you say? Why yes, under the house. Why do you ask?

Oh, you didn’t know. My house got a new foundation this spring.

Wow, those plum blossoms in the background sure look pretty.

So yesterday Dad, his cousin, and the guy who works with him were putting new beams under the house. At one point I was out in garden, valiantly hacking at the giant weeds with a hoe, when Dad called out, “Amy…I found something for you!”

Great, I said to myself. Probably a burlap sack he wants me to turn into a dress. Sorry, family joke.

It was actually the little white bowl above, caked in dirt. It had no chips and cleaned up nicely.

get to the currant sorbet already

Isn’t that currant sorbet a lovely shade of pink? It’s super refreshing on a hot summer day, and a whiff of summer in the dead of winter. If you can get your hands on some red currants, make some currant juice and get this sorbet into your freezer posthaste.

The inherent sweetness of the berries can vary. The main liquid/sweetening agent in this sorbet is a simple syrup. Simple syrup is traditionally just a 1:1 ratio of water and sugar, heated until it forms a clear liquid. In fact, simple syrup can be used in all sorts of sorbets. If you find the sorbet a little tart, try increasing the simple syrup to 3/4 cup water and 3/4 cup granulated sugar.

News flash! This currant sorbet recipe is now entered in the Ice Cream Social Challenge, hosted by ScottySnacks, SavortheThyme and Tangled Noodle. It runs through July, so I’ll let know how it goes and if there is adulation or raucous booing to be had.

currant sorbet

Adapted from a recipe by Delicious Days.

prep: 10 minutes
freeze: several hours
servings: 5
special equipment: food processor or blender

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup red currant juice
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon lime juice

In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until sugar is dissolved, a minute or two. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Guess what? You just made a simple syrup.

Combine currant juice, orange juice, and lime juice. Add the cooled simple syrup. Freeze several hours.

Once the sorbet is frozen, it will be dark red, with a coarse texture from large water crystals. Scoop the sorbet into a food processor or blender (food processor will work better), and allow to soften a few minutes. Whirl the currant sorbet until smooth and pink, then store in the freezer. This technique will lend the sorbet a perfect texture, like store-bought.

Why would you want to make currant juice?

I can think of a few reasons, one of which is definitely going to show up here shortly.

One, to make currant jelly. Now, I’m a strawberry jam girl, so I don’t make currant jelly, but if you put some currant jelly in front of me, I won’t complain.

Two, to make currant pie. My grandma made a currant chiffon pie that used Dream Whip. I might see if I can natural that up. I wonder if you could use stabilized whip cream to do it.

Three, and this is the doozy, to make currant sorbet. Shocking pink, tangy, and sweet and icy. Perfect for a summer afternoon. And it’s quite easy. That one’s going to show up here soon.

By the way, these are red currants. You know, I’ve never even seen a black currant, though I’ve heard tell of them in weird cookbooks and dark recesses of the intertubes. I’ve got six currant bushes, though five of them tend to be kind of spindly. The spindly ones are up front near the white lilac and the peonies. The big bushy currant is back by the plum trees. And across from the gooseberry bush, said gooseberry bush never going to be a source of recipes here because they’re kind of a pain, and not interesting-tasting enough to me to care. Oh, why are they a pain? Why, thorns of course. The dumb bush is covered in little thorns. Yay.

Currants, however, have none of those horrid protrusions, and they have a unique flavor. They taste just as red as they look, but there’s nothing cloying about them. There’s this added level, almost a smoky kind of depth.

Great. I just described currants as “smoky.” You’re never going to want to try them now.

You don’t want to eat them by the handful off the bush; they’re kind of tart. But turn them into juice and oo la la.

So the second time picking, I spent about an hour here and got most of a big bowl full. Mom has currants at her house too, which I neglected to prune for her this spring. Bad daughter! Strangely, I was still in the currant-picking mood, so I went to her house to get some. In half an hour my bowl was just as full as it had been before.

Her currants are way bigger.

Anyway, enough yapping. If you’re lucky enough to have access to currants, PICK THEM. MAKE JUICE FROM THEM. Then make CURRANT PIE or CURRANT JELLY or CURRANT SORBET from them. Freeze the juice in 1-cup containers, and you can have a taste of summer in the dead of winter, always a plus.

Oh. Any ideas how to get Dream Whip out of the currant chiffon pie?

how to make red currant juice for recipes or freezing

servings: 1 quart currants = 1 cup juice
special equipment: ricer or chinois and pestle, or cheesecloth

I call for straining the juice using a ricer. Well, we call it a ricer. However, when I looked up ricers, I got cylinder-shaped potato ricer things. What I call a ricer is apparently more of a “chinois with pestle.” You can use cheesecloth to squeeze out the juice, but that’s boring and messy. Wouldn’t it be more fun to mush up the currant pulp with a wooden mallet thing? You probably know someone with a ricer like this one. Oh, they never TOLD you they have it. Ask around. Someone, probably an older neighbor, has one and will love to loan it out to get used.

currants, several quarts worth if possible

1. Clean currants by dumping in a sink full of cold water. Pull them out by the handful, rinse under running water, and toss into a large pan. You can go as small as a 2-3 quart pan (I used my Calphalon 2.5 quart saucier as a backup). Just remember smaller pan will equal more batches on the stove.

2. Don’t worry about stems. Try to pick out stray leaves and twigs and grass. Eh, ignore that; I’m probably the only one who winds up with freaking tree branches in my bowl of carefully picked currants.

3. When the pan is about half full of currants, put onto the stove on low heat. No, you don’t need to add water. They’re wet enough from the rinsing. Keep on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the currants are releasing their juices and the skins are mainly turning pink. Remember, we aren’t cooking the currants, just sort of nudging them into playing nice.

4. Now for the fun part! Pour the contents of the pan into the ricer. With the pestle, smash the skins about to get the rest of the juice out. As the pan beneath the ricer fills up, transfer the juice to another bowl. Clean the pulp out from the ricer.

4-1/2. Optional extra step: To get a really fine juice, run the currant juice through a fine mesh strainer. Trust me, the ricer worked really well, but there are little bits of pulp (that you’ll hardly notice) still in there. If you want to get fussy, which I did this year, try that.

5. Continue the warming/ricing process until you have loads of currant juice and lots of pretty in pink pulp. Measure it out in 1-cup increments into containers that can be frozen. Why 1-cup increments? Every recipe I know of calls for 1 cup of currant juice. Of course, if you’re making currant jelly, you want 6-1/2 cups, but that’s not my story.

6. Refrigerate the currant juice that you’re going to use within a few days and freeze the rest.