Sour Cream Raisin Pie

My Mom made awesome pies.  After she died, it took a long time for me to walk through Dad’s kitchen without glancing on the kitchen counter above the corner cupboard to look for a fresh pie. One of Mom’s famous pies was her Sour Cream Raisin Pie.

I am NOT a pie baker.  I usually make a crostata since the crust is free-form and not fancy.  But today I decided to make Mom’s pie since I had all the ingredients here, including the cream.

COOKING TIP

 This recipe calls for sour cream, but it is NOT the kind of sour cream you plop onto your baked potato.  This is REAL dairy cream that has gone sour.  (I guess farmhouse cooks used to have more of that on hand than we do now.)  

I have some fresh heavy whipping cream in the refrigerator so I simply put one tablespoon of white vinegar in a one cup measure and filled the measuring cup to the rim with the fresh cream.  I let it sit for about five minutes…and the cream was curdled as if it had soured naturally.  THAT is how to make the sour cream called for in this recipe.

SOUR CREAM RAISIN PIE

2 large eggs
1 C. sugar

1 C. soured cream (soured with 1 T. white vinegar)

1 T. flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
A pinch of nutmeg
1 C. raisins
1/2 C. chopped pecans (I used walnuts because that’s what I had on hand)

METHOD
Beat eggs and sugar together.  Then stir in the soured cream.  In a separate bowl combine all the dry ingredients, and fold into egg and cream mixture.  Bake at 425 degrees for TEN MINUTES. Then lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake for 25-30 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean…sort if. (Don’t over-bake…I like it a little soft in the center…)

Start with unbaked pie crust

 

Beat eggs and sugar together

 

Mix dry ingredients together

 

Fold the dry ingredients into the egg and cream mixture

 

Ready for the oven…

 

Cool the baked pie on a rack

I’m sure my hubby will be surprised when he comes in the door tonight…and he will know better than to expect one of these on OUR kitchen counter very often!  But I’m sure he will be thinking of all the pies he enjoyed so many years ago in my Mom’s kitchen…and he’ll be grateful for this taste of bygone days…

UPDATE..When Fred walked in the door and saw the pie, he looked shocked…and happy!  Then he told me “For some reason, I thought about PIE last night..and I almost asked if you could make one sometime soon.”

Let’s just say I’m sure my Mom had something to do with this…