This blood orange pie is one of the sweetest most delicious citrus pies. It's a crustless, Greek-style filo pie soaked with syrup. Flavored with spices and chopped almonds.
It is also very similar to classic Greek Portokalopita (Orange Pie) which is made in the same fashion.
Blood Orange Pie is amongst my all-time favorite syrupy desserts. It's the acidity of the oranges that binds so well with the syrup and all the other earthy flavors of cinnamon, olive oil, almonds. And all those delicious flavors get absorbed together with the syrup by the crispy filo. Resulting in a really tender and mellow pie. Both the flavor and texture of this pie are really divine!
How To Make Blood Orange Pie
To make this pie you need to prepare the syrup first so it will be at room temperature when poured over the pie. Also, the pie will be hot straight out of the oven when you add the syrup this way, it's going to absorb it all nicely.
The Syrup. Is pretty straightforward to make. You simply add sugar, water, honey, and a cinnamon stick to a pot and simmer for a few minutes. Then set aside to cool.
The Blood Orange Base. The next thing you need to do is prepare the blood oranges. Remove the skins and cut them into very thin slices about ¼ of an inch (½cm) thick. Then sprinkle the bottom of the cake pan with brown sugar and lay the blood orange slices on top. Drizzle the oranges inside the pan with some melted butter, some honey, and a sprinkle of ground cinnamon. Bake at a low temperature 150°C / 302°F c for about 15 minutes. Then remove from the oven and set aside while you prepare the pie.
The Filo. First and foremost you need to unfreeze the filo properly. To do this leave the frozen filo package in the fridge overnight. Second, to use the filo in this recipe you need to cook it on its own first. Like it's done in Cheesecake Baklava. Take each filo sheet and tear it with your hands (or cut with a knife) into small pieces. Add in a large baking pan and once you have torn apart all of the filo sheets, bake in the oven, again at 150°C / 302°F, for about 30 minutes.
You will need to take the pan out of the oven every 10 minutes and toss and flip the little pieces of filo so they bake and get an even color all over. This also ensures that the little pieces won't stick together, therefore they get airy and crispy. Once the filo gets a light brown color all over remove it from the oven.
The Pie. The simplest part of the cooking process. Now simply whisk together all of the remaining ingredients for this pie. Starting with the corn oil, olive oil, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, baking powder, orange juice, and orange zest. Give it a vigorous stir with the hand whisk and then add the Greek yogurt. Then the eggs and once everything is fully combined you can add the baked filo in. The filo is added in batches into the batter. Crash it a bit with your hands and stir well after adding each batch. Once you incorporate all of the filo you can mix in the finely chopped almonds and you are ready to bake!
Finally, once the pie is baked to a golden brown color, take it out of the oven and pour the cooled syrup on top. Let it cool down to room temperature before flipping the pan over a serving plate.
This blood orange pie will keep nicely in the fridge for up to 5 days.
SERVE IT WITH
You can serve this pie with a scoop of frozen yogurt, or ice cream. Two unique ice cream flavors that go so well with this pie are cardamom ice cream and this delicious cinnamon ice cream!
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Recipe
Greek Upside Down Blood Orange Pie Recipe
Ingredients
For The Syrup:
- 700 grams (3 + ½ cups) sugar
- 600 ml water
- 2 tabelspoons honey
- 1 cinnamon stick
For The Blood Orange Base:
- 3-4 medium-sized blood oranges
- 100 grams (½ cup) brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter melted
- a pinch of ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons honey
For The Pie:
- 130 ml corn oil
- 140 ml olive oil
- 50 grams (¼ cup) brown sugar
- 130 ml fresh blood orange juice (about 2 medium-sized blood oranges squeezed)
- 2 blood oranges zested
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅓ teaspoon ground cloves
- 4 medium-sized eggs
- 250 grams (1 cup) Greek yogurt
- 1 package (450 grams) filo pastry sheets unfreeze in the fridge overnight
- 100 grams (about 1 cup) almonds finely chopped
Instructions
For The Syrup:
- Add all of the ingredients for the syrup in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Then drop the heat to medium and simmer uncovered and without stirring the syrup for 7-8 minutes. It's going to look slightly thickened. Remove pot from the heat and set aside to cool.
For The Blood Orange Base:
- Remove the skins from the oranges and slice them very thin to about ¼ of an inch (½cm).
- Preheat oven to 150°C / 302°F.
- In a large 31 cm round pan (you can use a square one instead of about 32 x 25 cm (12.3 x 9.4 inches) sprinkle the brown sugar all over the bottom of the pan.
- Lay the orange slices on top of the sugar all over the bottom of the pan.
- Drizzle the honey and melted butter over the oranges. And the sprinkle of cinnamon as well. Place pan in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. For the sugar to melt and the oranges to soften slightly. Then remove the pan from the oven and set it aside to cool while you prepare the filo. Don't turn the oven off.
- Remove the filo stack from its package. Take each filo sheet one by one separating them from each other and tear it apart into small pieces. Alternatively, you may use a knife to cut it. Just make sure to separate the pieces from each other. This is very important so the filo gets very airy and crispy.
- Add the cut filo to a large pan and bake it for 30 minutes. Toss and flip the pieces of filo every 10 minutes so they get evenly baked all over. Once they get a light brown color all over remove the pan from the oven and set it aside.
For The Pie:
- Turn the oven's heat up to 180°C / 356°F.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together, using a hand whisk, the corn oil, olive oil, the 50 grams of brown sugar, orange juice, orange zest, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Whisk vigorously for a minute or two for the sugar to dissolve. Then add the Greek yogurt. Again whisk to combine.
- Incorporate the eggs one by one into the batter.
- Finally, take handfuls of the baked filo pieces and mix them into the batter. Crush them a bit with your hands if the batter is starting to get too dense. Once all the filo is incorporated into the batter, add the finely chopped almonds in as well.
- Transfer the batter to the pan and spread it evenly and carefully over the orange slices.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until it gets a deep golden brown color on top. To make sure the pie is baked all the way through, insert a clean knife in the center to check if it comes out clean.
- Once the pie is baked, pour the syrup in batches using a ladle all over the pie. Do this right as the pie gets out of the oven to ensure it basorbs all of the syrup nicely.
- Let the pie reach room temperature and then flip it over a large serving plate. Cut and serve or refrigerate for 4-5 hours and serve cold. Add an extra drizzle of honey on top along with some ground cinnamon or see some of the ice cream suggestions that go extremely well with this pie in the text above. Enjoy!
Nutrition
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Oh I just love this kind of pie... with phyllo sheets and looots of syrup, plus that sweet and sour orange taste. Is this similar to portokalopita? I have no idea why I didn't try portokalopita when I was in Greece (already been there 5 times, in vacation), but I've seen it on the internet and I'm drooling every time I see pictures of it! This one, with blood orange, seems even more amazing, yum!
Yes the base is portokalopita I just altered it a bit with the blood orange 😉