Spring officially began March 20, but way up north in Montana, Mother Nature pays no attention to the calendar. I joke that Montana's climate is bi-polar; it's as cold as the South Pole and as cold as the North Pole. I have endured yet another week of unwelcome spring snow, cold temperatures, and biting wind. To add insult to injury, our heater quit due to a flooded crawl space. I am insanely jealous of my sun-basking, sandal-clad southern friends who are reveling in the colorful profusion of spring flowers. Here I sit bundled in my snuggie, sipping hot tea next to a roaring fire, gazing out my window at depressing shades of gray. I am craving heavy comfort foods and am tempted to start baking some holiday pies just to keep in step with Mother Nature's wacky rhythms.
Desperate to infuse some color into the dreary monochrome of winter, I decided to try an orange pie featured in Ken Haedrich's cookbook. My dear friend Teresa who threw my 50th SurPIES party loves the color orange. I thought this pie would be perfect baked in the tangerine fiestaware dish I bought her.
The crust is a basic graham cracker recipe with an unusual added ingredient of pistachios which offer a fun flavor twist. The bright green hue of the nuts add some eye-popping color to the crust as well. The filling is akin to a key lime pie. You can use regular lime juice but I opted for key lime juice for that extra punch of citrus zing. This pie's happy color and sprightly taste reminds me of citrusy locales like Florida and California. Mother Nature may be stingy in delivering spring warmth up north, but this wonderful pie is my virtual ticket to the sunshine state and the golden state. For this shivering northern girl, it's a sure cure for the springtime doldrums.
Pistachio Graham Cracker Crust:
3/4 cups chopped pistachios
2 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Big pinch of salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a 9 1/2 inch pie pan and set aside. Combine the nuts, brown sugar, and flour in a food processor and process in a number of long bursts until the nuts are very finely chopped. Dump the mixture into a large bowl. Run your fingers through them, breaking up any bigger pieces the machine might have missed. Stir in the graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon, and salt. Add the butter and incorporate well. Mix first with a fork, then with your hands, and rub everything together thoroughly to form evenly dampened crumbs.
Spread the crumbs evenly and loosely in the pie pan, pressing them into the bottom and up the side. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Place on the center oven rack and bake for 7 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
Filling:
2 cups fresh orange juice (or use a not-from-concentrate brand such as Tropicana)
2 cups (about 1 1/2 14-ounce cans) sweetened condensed milk
5 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons grated orange zest (optional)
Garnish:
1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
Threads of orange zest
Bring the orange juice to a rapid boil in a medium saucepan. Continue to boil until reduced to about 2/3 cup; keep a heatproof measuring cup nearby to check. Pour into a shallow bowl and let cool briefly. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the condensed milk, egg yolks, lime juice, vanilla, and orange zest in a large bowl, whisking well to combine. Whisk in the reduced orange juice until evenly blended. Pour the filling into the cooled pie shell.
Place the pie on the center oven rack and bake for 20 minutes. Even if the filling does not appear solid, remove the pie from the oven; the filling will firm up as the pie cools. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool thoroughly. Cover with loosely tented aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably longer. Pipe the whipped cream decoratively over the pie, or simply smooth it over the top. Garnish with the orange zest, if desired, using a lemon zester or sharp vegetable peeler to peel off long threads. Slice and serve.
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