close up photo of homemade Mountain Dew Baja Blast pie

About This Baja Blast Pie Recipe

If you’re looking for a copycat version of Taco Bell’s Baja Blast Pie recipe, this one’s for you!

To create this homemade version, I started with the key lime pie recipe from Weeknight Baking, my cookbook. It’s a crowd-pleaser of a recipe thanks to its bright, zippy, creamy-yet-citrusy filling, making it the perfect base for a homemade Baja Blast pie recipe!

I reworked the pie’s lime filling by adding a concentrated Baja Blast syrup made from the soda to achieve Taco Bell’s unmistakable Baja Blast flavor. The result is a vibrant, bright blue pie that captures everything fans love about the original Taco Bell treat, but with the depth and reliability of a from-scratch recipe!

For more unique pie recipes, check out Hummingbird High’s pie recipe collection! A fan favorite (and also incredibly trendy) recipe is this Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Tart (Complete With A Crunchy Kataifi Filling!).

photo of a homemade Mountain Dew Baja Blast pie with a slice cut from it
photo of homemade Baja Blast pie with a slice cut out of it and set on a small white plate next to it

Let’s Talk Ingredients

To develop this recipe, I spent a lot of time studying the nutritional label of Taco Bell’s Baja Blast pie. It listed ingredients like key lime juice and graham flour, leading me to believe that it was just a key lime pie with Mountain Dew Baja Blast soda! Indeed, early reviews of the pie on social media confirmed that it tastes mostly like key lime pie (just with some Baja Blast flavor).

So here’s my recommendations for some of the main ingredients in my recipe:

  • Mountain Dew Baja Blast. There’s no getting around this one, folks—you need Mountain Dew Baja Blast to make this pie! One 12-ounce can should do the trick.

  • Graham Crackers. If you want an authentic tasting pie, splurge for honey flavored graham crackers since I saw honey listed as an ingredient in Taco Bell’s nutrition label! I like Honey Maid Honey Graham Crackers.

  • Key Limes. I recommend using fresh key limes to make the filling for this pie—it makes the best tasting pie!

    If you don’t want to source key limes, go ahead and use regular limes. Because I also tested this recipe with limes and it was still delicious! Either way, the more important thing is to use fresh fruit for an extra zesty flavor.

  • Food Coloring. Again, there’s no getting around this—you need food coloring to get the pie’s signature teal color. I recommend splurging on a bottle of Americolor Soft Gel Food Color in Teal to give you the pie’s signature look.

    In a pinch, you can make your own teal color with a couple of bottles of green and blue food coloring. I saw a Reddit post that recommended a 1:3 ratio of green and blue to get that Baja Blast blue.

  • Egg Yolks. This is an incredibly nitpicky detail, but I wouldn’t be the baker I claim to be if I didn’t tell you this info. I usually like to buy organic, pasture-raised eggs with orange colored yolks. But for this recipe, it’s better to buy unpretentious generic eggs with yellow yolks. Why? The color of your egg yolks will have an effect on the color of the Baja Blast pie filling. Yellow egg yolks will make it easier to achieve that signature Baja Blast blue!
AmeriColor Teal Food Coloring

Americolor Soft Gel Paste Food Color, 0.75-Ounce, Teal

To nail the bold turquoise hue that makes a Baja Blast Pie instantly recognizable, you’ll want a high-quality gel coloring that stays vibrant without altering the texture of the filling. I recommend Americolor’s Soft Gel Paste in Teal.
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photo of homemade Baja Blast pie slices on small white plates

How To Make Taco Bell’s Baja Blast Pie At Home (With Photos!)

First, Make Mountain Dew Baja Blast Concentrate For The Pie

Photo of Mountain Dew Baja Blast in a liquid measuring cup before it has been reduced into a concentrate for the recipe
To make the pie, you need to cook down 1 ½ cups of Mountain Dew Baja Blast into a concentrated syrup. Note the original light blue color and volume.
Photo of Mountain Dew Baja Blast in a light colored sauce pan
I recommend using a light colored sauce pan to cook the soda. A lighter colored pan will make it easier to track the color and volume of the soda as it cooks down!
Photo of Mountain Dew Baja Blast in a liquid measuring cup after it's been reduced into the amount needed for Baja Blast pie
You’ll need to cook the soda over medium-high heat until enough water evaporates and you’re left with only ⅓ cup. The remaining liquid will be thick and syrupy, with a darker and more vibrant blue color.

Then, Make Graham Cracker Crumbs and the Most Perfect Graham Cracker Pie Crust

photo of graham crackers in a food processor bowl before being processed into crumbs
To make the crust, you need 1 ⅓ cups graham cracker crumbs. Use a digital scale to weight out 5 ounces (142 grams) of graham crackers. If you don’t have a scale, that’s exactly 1 sleeve’s worth of crackers (around 9 whole crackers).
photo of graham crackers in a food processor bowl after being processed into crumbs
Use a food processor to pulse the crackers into fine crumbs. Make sure no large graham cracker pieces remain.
photo of graham cracker crumbs mixed with brown sugar, melted butter, and salt showing sandy texture
In a medium bowl, combine the crumbs, melted butter, brown sugar, and salt. Mix with a rubber spatula until the mixture looks like wet sand.
photo of Michelle from Hummingbird High pressing the crumbs into the pan to make the pie crust for Baja Blast pie
Pour the mixture into a 9-inch pie pan and use your hands to press it evenly over the bottom of the pan, all the way up to the edges. Don’t be afraid to press hard so the crust holds its shape!
photo of the finished pie crust before it's baked
Here’s what my pie crust looked like after I pressed all the crumbs into the pan. Note that it no longer looks loose and sandy. I also only pressed the crumbs up the sides of the pan (there’s no need to do the rim).
photo of the pie crust after it's been baked
And this is what the crust looks like after you prebake it for 10 minutes. Don’t worry if it still seems soft—you’ll bake it again after filling.

Next, Make That Vibrant Blue Baja Blast Filling

photo of baja blast filling before being mixed
To make the filling, combine the sweetened condensed milk, Baja Blast concentrate, key lime juice, and salt. Use a glass bowl to avoid a metallic taste in the filling (which can happen if you mix something acidic in a metal bowl).
photo of baja blast filling after being mixed with no food coloring
After combining the ingredients, the concentrate’s color should fade into the rest of the ingredients. The filling will basically look like sweetened condensed milk at this point—that’s totally normal!
photo of Michelle from Hummingbird High mixing food coloring into the filling
That’s why I told you earlier that you NEED food coloring to make this Baja Blast pie. At this point, add as much food coloring as you need to get that signature Baja Blast blue.
photo of the baja blast filling with food coloring
If you’re using a combination of green and blue food coloring, err on the side of making the filling more blue. Adding yellow egg yolks to the mixture later will give the filling a greenish tint. This is the color you want.
photo of Michelle from Hummingbird High adding egg yolks to baja blast filling
I like to add the egg yolks after I’m satisfied with the color of my filling. If you add the egg yolks before you’ve dyed the filling, you could potentially overmix the filling.
photo of baja blast filling with egg yolks mixed in
Mix the egg yolks into the filling until just combined. See how the egg yolks tinted the filling a slight green? You’re now ready to pour it into the prebaked crust and bake the whole pie!

Finally, Pipe The Border of The Pie With Whipped Cream (After Chilling It, Of Course)

My Best Tips To Help You Make This Crazy Pie

How To Make The Recipe Fit Your Schedule

  • Plan ahead for this one! After baking the pie, you need to cool it completely before refrigerating for at least 4 hours to chill it. If you’re baking for an event, I suggest baking everything the day before to give the pie time to properly cool and chill.

  • I also recommend making the whipped cream right before serving the pie so it stays light and fluffy. That means potentially splitting up the recipe over two days. Bake the pie on Day 1 and chill it overnight; on Day 2, make the whipped cream right before serving and enjoy!

Foolproof Tips On How To Make Mountain Dew Baja Blast Concentrate

  • It takes a surprisingly long time to reduce the Baja Blast down to the concentrate needed for the recipe (between 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how aggressive you are with your heat source). I like to cook it in the background while I preheat the oven, make, and prebake the graham cracker crust. By the time I’m done with prebaking the crust, the concentrate is ready too! You can also premake the concentrate for up to 3 days in advance—just store it in an airtight container until you’re ready to make the rest of the pie.

  • The easiest way to monitor how much you’ve cooked down the Baja Blast is to have a heatproof liquid measuring cup next to your sauce pan. Pour the Baja Blast into the measuring cup every 5 minutes to make sure you’re not reducing it too much. Do this more often the closer you get to the amount needed for the recipe!

  • If you accidentally cook the Baja Blast too much and end up with less than the ⅓ cup needed for the recipe, don’t panic. You can just add more lime juice in its place (e.g. if you ended up with ¼ cup, just add lime juice until you have ⅓ cup of liquid total). Don’t add more Baja Blast—that waters down the flavor of the concentrate and leads to a blander pie.

You Don’t Need A Fancy Pie Pan (No Really, You Don’t)

If you’re a serious baker, you probably have a collection of beautiful deep-dish pie pans. But I hate to break it to you—this homemade Baja Blast pie recipe is not the recipe for those!

Taco Bell serves their Baja Blast pie in a disposable, shallow metal 9-inch pie pan similar to this one. These pans are available in many major grocery stores and work perfectly for my recipe below. If you use a deep-dish pan, you likely won’t have enough graham cracker crust or pie filling to fill it! My recipe works best for a shallow pie pan that’s only 1-inch deep.

How To Make Foolproof Whipped Cream For Piping

The recipe instructs you to whip the heavy cream to “firm peaks.” The best way to see if you have this texture is to do a test with a whisk! Dip the tip of a whisk into the whipped cream, remove it, and quickly turn it upside down. If the cream is too soft, it will slide off the whisk and you’ll need to keep whisking. If the cream has a cloud-like texture with peaks that lose their shape, you’re at the “soft peaks” stage and need to continue whisking. Whisk for just a little longer and do the test again—the peaks should hold, and you’re officially at the “firm peaks” stage! Just watch out: this happens pretty soon after the “soft peaks” stage, and it’s easy to overdo it and make the cream overly clumpy.

close up photo of homemade Mountain Dew Baja Blast pie
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Get the Recipe: Homemade Baja Blast Pie Recipe (Better Than Taco Bell!)

Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 28 minutes
Total: 53 minutes
Servings: 1 (9-inch) pie
Author: Michelle Lopez
A quick and creamy homemade copycat of Taco Bell’s seasonal Mountain Dew Baja Blast Pie. This version adds a concentrated Baja Blast syrup to a key lime pie filling to make Baja Blast's signature zesty flavor and bold blue color. Easy and perfect for anyone craving the classic Taco Bell treat at home!
(5 stars) 1 review
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Ingredients

For the Baja Blast Concentrate

  • 1 ½ cups (12 ounces or 340 grams) Mountain Dew Baja Blast

For the Graham Cracker Crust

  • 1 ⅓ cups (5 ounces or 142 grams) graham cracker crumbs
  • 4 Tablespoons (2 ounces or 57 grams) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 Tablespoon tightly packed light or dark brown sugar
  • pinch kosher salt

For the Baja Blast Filling

  • 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
  • ⅓ cup (2.65 ounces or 75 grams) Baja Blast concentrate
  • ⅓ cup (2.65 ounces or 75 grams) strained freshly squeezed key lime or lime juice
  • pinch kosher salt
  • teal food coloring
  • 4 large egg yolks

For the Whipped Cream

  • ¾ cup (6 ounces or 170 grams) very cold heavy cream
  • 1 Tablespoon confectioners' sugar, sifted if lumpy
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Equipment

  • food processor
  • 9-inch shallow pie pan
  • stand mixer with a whisk attachment

Instructions
 

For the Baja Blast Pie

  • First, make the Baja Blast concentrate. Pour the Mountain Dew Baja Blast into a small sauce pan. Reduce to ⅓ cup (2.65 ounces or 75 grams) over medium-high heat until thick and syrupy, about 20 minutes.
    Pour the concentrate in a liquid measuring cup and set aside to cool completely before using in the filling.
  • Meanwhile, prep the oven to bake the graham cracker crust. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350℉.
  • Make the graham cracker crust. In a medium bowl, combine the crumbs, melted butter, brown sugar, and salt. Mix with a rubber spatula until the mixture looks like wet sand.
    Pour the mixture into a 9-inch pie pan and use your hands to press it evenly over the bottom of the pan, all the way up to the edges. Don't be afraid to press hard so the crust holds its shape!
  • Bake the graham cracker crust. Bake the crust for 10 minutes (keep the oven on—you need it to bake the full pie later). The crust will look underbaked and feel soft to the touch when you remove it from the oven, but will firm up as it cools.
    Cool the crust slightly on a wire rack while you make the filling.
  • Make the Baja Blast filling. In a medium glass bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk, Baja Blast concentrate, key lime juice, and salt. Whisk to combine.
    Whisk in 1 to 2 drops of food coloring at a time until you achieve that signature Baja Blast blue (I used around ¼ teaspoon teal food coloring—you'll likely need to use more if you're using liquid food coloring over gel). Once you're happy with the color, add the egg yolks and whisk until just combined.
    Pour the filling over the crust and use an offset spatula to smooth the top if necessary.
  • Bake the Baja Blast pie. Bake for 18 minutes, or until the edges of the pie are set but the center still wobbles slightly. Cool completely on a wire rack.
    Once cool, cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before topping with whipped cream, preferably overnight.
  • Once the pie is chilled, make the whipped cream. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the heavy cream, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla.
    Whisk on medium-high speed until firm peaks form, about 3 minutes.
    Transfer the whipped cream to a piping bag fitted with a star tip. Pipe dollops of whipped cream along the border of the Baja Blast pie.
    Serve immediately. The Baja Blast pie can be stored in the refrigerator, covered loosely with plastic wrap, for up to 3 days.
Did you make this recipe?Please leave a star rating and review in the form below. I appreciate your feedback, and it helps others, too!
Michelle holding Weeknight Baking cookbook covering her face.

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Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule

Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.

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