Delicious Sour Orange Pie with Candied Blood Oranges
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If at first you don't succeed, pie, pie again.
This is literally the most I've baked in about a decade, but I think that's probably par for the course for most of us in the last 18 months. (I hope history refers to this as the "sourdough era".)
I don't have the patience for baking, but I'm fresh off a camper trip to Key Largo, where I ate my weight in key lime pie, so I'm much more motivated than normal. I neeeeeed more pie. And more stretchy pants, for after the pie. (I hope we never go back to real pants post-pandemic. Give me activewear or give me death, y’all.)
Fortunately, my parents' sweet neighbor Valerie sent us home with EVEN MORE sour oranges when we stopped to pick up my beloved devil dog on the way back home. There's a limit to how many Smokey Sour Orange Margaritas a girl can - or should - drink in one month, so I became obsessed with the idea of turning these gorgeous, chemical-free, low-impact, backyard-grown oranges into pie.
Y'all, I am NOT the first person to have this idea. It turns out that sour orange pie is actually a somewhat-forgotten old Florida classic, so much so that it's made it into Garden & Gun. I made that Garden & Gun version, and while it was delicious, I needed more of that delightful sour orange sting. The Garden & Gun recipe is sweet and mellow, and totally worth making.
This is my adaptation, which also uses up more of that precious sour orange juice!
Best Sour Orange Pie Recipe with Candied Blood Oranges
Note: This recipe is for a 9.5" or 10" pie.
Sour Orange Pie Ingredients
Graham cracker crust (There is NO SHAME in using a premade crust. I tried to make my own in versions 1 and 2 of this pie, and it was disastrous but delicious. The version pictured uses a premade crust.)
6 beaten egg yolks, preferably from the farmer market for a richer flavor (Note: If you have trouble separating out the whites, you'll be able to remove them when you heat the custard filling by gently swirling a whisk through the top of the filling. The whites will cling to the whisk bottom while the custard will drop through.)
6 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup hot water
2/3 cup sour orange juice
2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
dash of salt
powdered sugar for garnishing, if desired
Candied Blood Orange Ingredients
1 blood orange, scrubbed and sliced into 1/8 inch slices (discard the ends, I hope that's obvious)
2 cups of water
3/4 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
How to Make Sour Orange Pie with Candied Blood Oranges
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large saucepan, combine your water, sugar, and light corn syrup. Bring to a boil, uncovered, and then lower the temperature to a simmer, covered, until the contents are evenly combined, about 3 minutes.
Then add your blood orange slices and simmer, uncovered, for one hour. While your orange slices simmer, move on to steps below. You may want to set an alarm for 50 minutes, however, because your orange slices may start sticking together toward the end of your simmer. Use a spoon or fork to push them apart until translucent and cooked through. Once your orange slices are cooked through, remove with a slotted spoon and let cool on a wire rack.
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the cornstarch, sugar, and water, making sure to gently run a flexible spatula or clean finger along the inside edges of the pan to mix all the contents equally.
Whisk in the butter, eliminating as many clumps as possible (but don't get crazy about it).
Gently whisk in hot water and citrus juice, followed by the egg yolks.
Then heat over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the filling coats the back of a spoon, about 5-10 minutes. If you don't stir it regularly, the filling may start to congeal on the bottom of the pan.
Gently ladle the pie filling into your prepared graham cracker crust and bake until slightly jiggly in the middle but cooked through. This will vary by oven time, but mine consistently came in between 25-35 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let cool, remembering that your pie will continue to set as it cools.
Decorate your cooled sour orange pie with the candied blood orange slices and finish with powdered sugar, if desired.
Serve room temperature or chilled - and with whipped cream, according to my husband!
So, if you've read this far, congrats! I'll leave you with one last thought: every time you manage to incorporate low-impact foods into your diet, you ease the strain on this great Mother Earth of ours. My sour oranges were backyard grown citrus from Florida, where they've taken so well to the climate that they actually grow wild in some places.
In contrast, produce grown outside of its season or natural habitat may require heating and cooling, fertilizers, pesticides, wax coatings to prolong the shelf life, refrigeration while in transit, and often plastic packaging.
Whether it's from your own garden, a farm stand, a local farm, or a gift from a sweet neighbor, eating seasonally and consciously can be both a fun foodie experiment and beneficial to the planet.
Looking for more low-impact, seasonal food recipes? Check out the Best Loquat Peach Salsa or this delightful Mulberry Strawberry Basil Shrub for your next round of cocktails or mocktails!
XOXO,
Reese
