Blood Orange Meringue Pie

A twist on an old recipe! This was fun to do, and now I kind of want to do it again only with grapefruit. 

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Some of my blood oranges were flecked with red, others were deep maroon inside.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is a fan of blood oranges. And I know there was some excitement on my social media when I made a comment about being sad I couldn't make this Blood Orange Meringue Pie on Pi Day - just no time. But this weekend, a few days late, I carved the time out of my spring cleaning to give it a whirl.

Mise en place makes this a little easier to manage when you're cooking dinner at the same time.

I was sure it would work. Not only are Blood Oranges a brighter, tarter citrus flavor than navel oranges, they have enough color to make the curd portion of the pie a pretty color. What I wasn't sure of was my proportions. Lemon juice packs a lot more acidic flavor pop than Blood Orange. Add to that, I was working off the framework of a lemon meringue pie recipe from my venerable Fannie Farmer cookbook, and it looked like it didn't use enough juice. So I played with that.

The curd thickens, and clarifies. When you first begin, it will look almost milky although there is no dairy.

The curd filling, before meringue.

And it worked. Nicely! I loved the flavor. I regretted cutting it too soon, but it was either that, or pie for breakfast. So the curd was still soft. But next time I could add another tablespoon of cornstarch and solve that little issue. Or just leave it as-is, if I don't care about the perfect congealed pie slice. Sometimes it's more about flavor than it is looks.

The curd is a bit soft. But very tasty! Next time I'll put in a touch more cornstarch.