Brûléed Grapefruit

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I am in several groups on Facebook, some are with other bloggers and others are food-related.  One in particular is a group of extended friends interested in all things cooking.  I shamelessly promote the blog there, but we also discuss methods for cooking things, or occasionally someone will throw out a request for ideas.  One recent discussion was about what to serve at a brunch party, one of the ideas this person had was brûléed grapefruit.  I’ve had it before and really enjoyed it, I’m not sure why I don’t eat it more.  I also thought I could put my own spin on this simple breakfast treat. Besides, am I really going to pass up a perfect excuse to get out my trusty kitchen torch again (don’t worry you can make this recipe without one also)!

Let’s get to the grapefruit!

If you’ll be using the oven rather than a kitchen torch, turn your broiler on and put one of the oven racks in the top third of the oven. Now cut your grapefruit in half and section it.  Make sure to cut the grapefruit in half evenly so you have a flat surface for the sugar.   We actually have a little grapefruit knife that does a pretty good job of this.  My mother-in-law is the queen of kitchen gadgets so it’s something my husband used growing up, I’d only heard of a grapefruit spoon. She eventually gave us one and it’s been a handy little tool in the kitchen!

Once you’ve sectioned both halves of your grapefruit, set it aside.

Now mix together the sugar, ground ginger and salt.

Sprinkle half of this mixture on each grapefruit top.  If using a kitchen torch, put the flame setting to medium and slowly run the flame over the sugar until it bubbles and starts to darken.

If you’re using the oven, put the grapefruit halves on a cookie sheet and put that under the broiler. Watch carefully and take it out when the sugar starts to bubble and darken, about 3 minutes.  Then take it out immediately.

Let the grapefruit sit a couple of minutes to cool and allow the sugar to harden.  Now get out your spoons and enjoy!  The salt tames some of the bitterness and the ginger adds a little spice.  The caramelized sugar is warm and crunchy which provides a nice textural contrast to the cool grapefruit.

Enjoy!