Pandan Calamansi Pie

This pandan calamansi pie is one of my favorite things we make and we only make it once a year

Pi (π) is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and is shortened to 3.14 even though the number basically goes on forever. Pi day happens every year on 3/14 and it’s our excuse to make and eat pie!

I didn’t know that pi day goes back to 1988 (I thought it was more of a recent thing—it’s older than me!) and was founded by Larry Shaw, an employee at a San Francisco science museum. Thank you Larry for your contribution to society. We are grateful for more reasons to celebrate STEM and eat pie.

We’ve observed pi day the last two years at the bakery and it’s been a big hit. It’s the only day of the year that we offer pie slices in the shop. Last year, I came up with this pandan calamansi pie just for the occasion and it sold out so quickly. I knew we had to bring it back again this year and in much greater quantity.

Like most things I make, it’s usually a sudden thought of “hm, this seems like it could be a cool idea” then running with it. Pandan, coconut, and calamansi are all very common in Filipino cuisine and I thought the fragrant aroma of pandan would work great as a custard base with extra tart calamansi adding acidity to balance. Pandan is a tropical plant native to Southeast Asia that’s often known as “Asia’s vanilla.” Calamansi is a citrus fruit that’s a hybrid between a mandarin orange and a kumquat. It’s extremely tart and has a bright, limey flavor.

This pie is stunning in that it has a natural color block, two distinct layers of green and yellow. It’s one of my favorite things we make at the bakery and am excited to share the recipe with you here! You should be able to find pandan leaves (often frozen) and calamansi juice at your local Asian grocery store. If you can’t find calamansi juice or don’t want to buy another specialty ingredient, I recommend swapping out 1:1 for yuzu juice or lemon juice.

Every photo I have of the pandan calamansi pie haha

Relatively speaking, this pie is a good amount of work. It requires blending pandan leaves to make juice, making the pandan custard, making the graham cracker crust (if you choose to do so, store-bought is also fine), and then making the calamansi cream. It’ll need a long fridge rest, ideally overnight, to set up completely before slicing. All that is to say, set aside an afternoon or evening to make this! It’s well worth it though, I promise.