Sour Cream Raisin Pie – Vintage Pie July – Mid-Century Recipe Guest Test Sunday - Mid-Century Menu (2024)

by Erica | Jul 6, 2014 | Guest Bloggers, Pie | 11 comments

We love pie in our house. Pieathalon was a lot of fun.

And when Retro Ruth suggested we spend a whole month — Pie July — it was easy to say yes.

This one was particularly fun because Paul Langlois, chief cook at a Detroit firehouse, sent in his family raisin pie recipe to the newspaper. I’ve never heard of sour cream fruit pies, but it apparently won a contest — worth a taste, certainly.

Mixing was easy. Sour cream, sugar, and everything else in one quick bowl.

Of course, I had to spend about thirty minutes quartering raisins before that easy mixing stage. Seriously, cutting little dried fruit into even littler pieces… at least I could do it while watching TV.

I screwed up the meringue a bit — made it slightly earlier than I should have, let it sit for a little, and it started to collapse. Meringue with no cream of tartar isn’t particularly stable, and it wept a lot after baking.

But it was still lovely and brown on top, and cooked through.

Buzz was rather happy that we started the month off with a sweet fruit pie, not a savory one. (I didn’t mention the sour cream at first.)

“Oooh, this is raisin pie.”

After another couple of bites, he said it was surprisingly spicy. “Lot of cloves in this, huh?”

“Well, Paul Langlois’ mother liked it. This is a pie for families, not firefighters.”

Another bite. “Mmmm-hmmm.”

Verdict: Sweet, gooey goodness.

Tasting notes:

Good raisin flavor and nice texture contrast with the meringue on top. The cloves and cinnamon were on the strong side, but did help balance out the super-sweet sugar levels. The sour cream could have been a bit less sweet, since there was meringue on top. Overall it’s a neat way to enjoy raisins.