Greek Upside Down Blood Orange Pie Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Greek Upside Down Blood Orange Pie Recipe

This Blood Orange Pie is soft and mellow. Made with filo and completely soaked in syrup. Full of earthy flavors: olive oil, cinnamon, and spices, plus almonds!

Prep Time30

Cook Time1 15

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Greek

Keyword: filo, fruit, Nuts, Oven baked

Servings: pieces

Calories: 629kcal

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!

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