Tangerine Pie

It's Ojai Pixie Tangerine season, and a welcome one it is. Sinking my teeth into sweet, juicy, delicious tangerines has been one of my great pleasures during this rather bleak and frigid month. For a moment, I had a taste of summer. Find them, buy them, and enjoy what surely must be the most delicious piece of citrus fruit available.  I juiced a few of them, and it was heavenly; the fragrance permeated the room and was intoxicating.

So much can be done with citrus, both sweet and savory, but I wanted to try something different and made a pie. Move over, key lime! Wow, was this good. If you are a fan of dreamcicles (and really, is anyone not a fan of them?), then you will love this version in pie form.

The tangerines are so sweet that I cut the juice with that of Meyer lemons to keep it from being cloying. Perfect! I didn't have enough egg whites for a meringue (Okay, I dropped them, if you must know, and some slid down the heating vent. I'll say no more.), so I whipped cream with a little powdered sugar and piped it all over the top, but you can certainly top it with meringue if that is your preference.

Tangerine Pie

For crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

¼ cup ginger snap crumbs

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

For filling:

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

4 large egg yolks

½ cup Ojai Pixie Tangerine juice

2 tablespoons Meyer Lemon juice

For topping:

¾ cup heavy cream

¼ cup confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Stir together the graham cracker and ginger snap crumbs.  Add sugar, stir to mix.  With a fork mix in the melted butter and keep mixing until it is well incorporated.  Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9” glass pie pan.  Bake the crust in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes.  Remove and set aside to cool while you prepare the filling.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the condensed milk and egg yolks until thoroughly combined.  Add juices and whisk again until combined.  Pour the filling into the prepared crust and bake in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes.  Remove pie from oven and allow to cool, at room temperature, for an hour.  Cover pie and chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.

Before serving beat heavy cream until soft peaks form.  Add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.  Pipe cream on top of pie to cover, or simply cover the pie with the cream in any way that you see fit.  Garnish with slices of tangerine.

Pie will keep in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for 3 days.  It also freezes beautifully.

Disclosure: Melissa's Produce kindly supplied the tangerines, but the recipe is my own.

This post is linked to:

Seasonal Sundays

Tasty Tuesday

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

Try a New Recipe Tuesday

Amaze Me Monday

Metamorphosis Monday