Blood Orange Pie

This recipe is adapted from America’s Test Kitchen’s recipe for Key Lime Pie. I tweaked it a bit – added vanilla and, of course, blood oranges. You could use regular oranges as well, if you can’t find blood oranges.

Don’t worry about the color of the filling as you mix it with the sweetened condensed milk – it may look a little purplish-grayish, but I found it turned a nice rusty orange when the filling had set. You could always add a drop or two of food coloring if you want it to be a vibrant orange.

In the pie in the photos above I used homemade graham crackers – they were made with graham and teff flour, and are much darker than normal ones. I didn’t prefer them- the crust didn’t bake up quite right and was a tiny bit soggy. I would suggest store bought here. Also, I didn’t serve the pie with the blood orange slices – I highly recommend a pile of whipped cream on top, to balance the flavors.

Several people have commented they are having trouble getting this pie to set. I have made this pie (and various versions of key lime and lemon) with good results many times over the years, but apologize for the trouble readers are having. If your pie hasn’t set, it could be that your oven temperature is off (this is a frequent problem with home ovens). Using an oven thermometer to check that your temperature is correct can help. Also, the directions for “set but still wiggly” might mean different things to different readers, so I’ve changed that to indicate that it should be set and mostly firm with just the slightest jiggle.