Why Youll Love This Recipe
OLD FASHIONED You gotta just love a classic, old fashioned recipe just like your grandma use to make. Its like being transported back in time a couple of decades. This Sour Cream Raisin Pie is just like that!
UNIQUE Next time you need to bring a dessert for a potluck, pitch in or party, try out this pie. It will be something a little different and your friends and family will love it! That creamy custard filling dotted with plump raisins and the meringue topping is definitely eye catching!
How To Make This Raisin Pie
The pie cooks in less than an hour and takes about 15 minutes to construct!
Sour Cream Raisin Pie
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This recipe for sour cream raisin pie is the perfect mix of sweet and tangy, and topped with a creamy brown sugar meringue it is literally pie perfection!
For more great pie-baking skills, why not learn How to Blind Bake a Pie Crust? Or learn how to make this Peach Crumble Recipe instead?
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Sour Cream Raisin Bars
These Sour Cream Raisin Bars were born from the need to make my Dad one of his favorite desserts and my disdain for making pie crust. I combined two old fashioned dessert into one delicious bar recipe. The buttery crumble from sour cream raisin bars create the crust, but we keep the amazing meringue from the classic pie.
Storage Leftovers And Freezing
Sour Cream Raisin Pie needs to be kept chilled in your refrigerator. Keep it in a covered pie dish. We like to use this one. It should stay good in your fridge for about 4-5 days.
Can you freeze a Sour Cream and Raisin Pie? We do not recommend freezing this pie. The custard and meringue just does not freeze or thaw well.
We hope you enjoy this Sour Cream Raisin Pie Recipe! Please let us know how it turns out in the comments section! Happy eating!
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Beating The Egg Whites Just Right
Beating the egg whites to the right consistency is the most difficult element to gauge if you dont have experience making a meringue recipe. I promise you can do it though!
Keep in mind that if you dont beat them long enough, the egg whites will be soggy and limp. You need to beat them on high so they reach stiff peaks. When the egg whites are glossy and form a stiff peak when you remove the beater, you know they are ready.
Dont over beat the eggs or they will become dry and grainy and there is no coming back from that.
Be gentle with your meringue and dollop it over the Sour Cream Raisin Bars. Use the back of a spoon to gently spread it over the bars to the very edge of the pan to create a seal. Pop the bars in the oven for 10-12 minutes until the peaks are lightly golden. Carefully remove the pan from the oven and set gently on a trivet to cool to room temperature before serving.
Why Youll Love This Classic Pie Recipe:
- Classic: Old fashioned recipes are a weakness of mine. I just love them so much, and theyve stood the trials of time!
- Holiday: This raisin custard pie is usually served around the holiday season at both Christmas and Thanksgiving. Its a tried and true holiday classic.
- Custard: Perfectly baked custard is sure to bring a smile to anyones face this holiday season. Even the biggest Grinch will love this smooth, creamy custard pie!
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Sour Cream Raisin Pie Ingredients & Notes
- Pie Crust: While store bought pie crust is quick and easy, feel free to use your favorite pie crust recipe instead.
- Raisins: Boiling the raisins ahead of time plumps them up. If you do not want to boil them, soak them in hot water for 1 hour before adding them to the recipe.
- Lemon Juice: An equal part of white vinegar can be used in place of the lemon juice.
- Spices: For a more spiced filling, add an additional ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of allspice. This will give it more of a warm, cozy holiday spiced flavor!
Whether you personalize it a bit or bake it exactly as instructed, youre going to love this classic holiday staple!
Custard raisin pie is an all-time holiday favorite pie, and once you indulge in a slice, it wont be hard to see why!
What Is A Sour Cream Pie
There is a good chance this pie gained its popularity decades ago when having fresh fruit laying around was a little more challenging. Especially in places like Iowa where it was harder to grow throughout the year. But raisins were much easier to have on hand. And so this fruit pie became popular for entertaining. It was brought to church functions, funeral wakes and potlucks.
These days, with ingredients like cloves and cinnamon, it also works great as a Holiday Recipe, especially perfect for Thanksgiving.
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How To Make Sour Cream Raisin Pie
Place the raisins into a glass with at least 4 cups capacity and that can be microwaved
Add enough water to cover with an inch of water, and then microwave on high, stirring every minute until the raisins have plumped
In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt
Stir in the sour cream and cream, whisking the mixture until smooth
Cook the mixture together, constantly stirring, over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly
Turn down the heat to medium, and cook for 2 minutes and then remove from the heat
Temper the eggs and then add the eggs together with the mixture
Place back on the burner and bring to a gentle boil, cooking for 2 minutes
Stir in the raisins, and then pour into the pie shell
For the meringue, in a medium bowl, beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt at medium speed
Gradually beat in the brown sugar on high until stiff peaks form
Spread the meringue in an even layer over the hot filling, sealing the edge to the crust
Bake the pie for 15 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit, or until the meringue is a deep golden brown
Remove and cool on a wire rack for an hour and then place into the fridge for 2 hours and then slice and serve
What Does It Taste Like
The filling is super creamy. It almost tastes like there is lemon in it from the sour of the sour cream.
The raisins are soft with a slight chew. The meringue is like a fluffy marshmallow cloud on top!
It is super tasty, but on the rich side. So err on the side of smaller slices.
The reactions of my family were pretty funny. My dad instantly remembered it from the olden days and my mom was super excited.
My brother didnt remember having raisin pie before and he called it an old people pie but didnt have any issue eating his whole slice.
My husband who envisioned a pecan pie texture was pleasantly surprised with the creamy filling. He was pretty excited about the meringue on top too.
If you want more old fashioned desserts, try my baked peanut butter pie recipe. Or if you are in a cake mood try my great-grandmas butter cake with fudge frosting.
Or try a vintage poor mans cake. The batter is made in a saucepan and its loaded with spice and raisins, it is easy to make and tastes like grandmas kitchen.
Love this recipe? Give it a review in the recipe card below!
Monday 27th of January 2020
This brings back many memories. My grandmother use to make this pie all of the time. It looks marvelous.
Andrea Nine
Monday 27th of January 2020
I have never seen or tried this before but it looks so incredibly delicious! I bet the flavors are fantastic! Have a great start to your week!
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More Pie Recipes You’ll Love
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What Is Sour Cream Raisin Pie
Sour cream raisin pie is an easy custard pie that actually tastes much better than it sounds. With a great amount of vanilla flavoring and spices, its perfect for fall weather . This old school pie is incredible and packed with flavors and textures that just work well together.
We were all dubious about how this pie would turn out, if I’m being completely honest. While we aren’t raisin haters, I don’t particularly love them in desserts aside from oatmeal cookies and apple strudel.
But as we each took our first tentative bites of this pie, everybody had the same astonished reactions of delight at it’s wonderful texture and flavors. Plumping the raisins beforehand is key so they are soft instead of chewy when you bite into the pie. And the perfect balance of spices is the perfect accent, rather than overpowering the sweet, homey flavor of the custard.
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How To Easily Temper Your Eggs
Tempering eggs is never an easy task it is only too easy to end up with accidental scrambled eggs.
However, with a little bit of knowledge, it can actually be really easy to temper eggs.
Simply stir in a very small quantity of your hot mixture into the eggs. The trick to avoiding them turning into thick scrambled eggs is to make sure that the eggs are well beaten before they see any of the hot mixtures.
As you beat the eggs, gently mix in the hot mixture, stirring rapidly to help evenly distribute the heat throughout the mix.
This will stop the eggs from cooking when they are added to the pot and will help thicken everything in general.
Looking for more delicious Pie recipes? Try these out:
Sour Cream Raisin Pie Ingredients
- PIE CRUST One pie crust. Cooked and cooled. We didnt include instructions for making your pie crust. We trust that you either have your own recipe already or, you can just take a shortcut and use a store bought pie shell . But, if you are looking for an easy pie crust recipe, check this one out.
- RAISINS Any brand of raisins. Just make sure to plump them up using the directions below.
- GRANULATED SUGAR
- CORNSTARCH Helps to give our custard that delicious texture.
- SALT
- GROUND CLOVES The mixture of the cloves and cinnamon gives that pie a delicious flavor perfect for the Fall and/or Thanksgiving.
- GROUND CINNAMON
- SOUR CREAM You can lighten this dish up a little by using low fat sour cream.
- MILK We used 2% milk. But, again, you can try using skim milk to lighten up. On the other side, use half and half to make it a little thicker and richer.
- EGGS Divided between whites and yolks.
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Recipe Tips And Notes
- Use full fat, not low fat sour cream for the best creamy consistency.
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice will yield better results than the bottled stuff from the grocery store.
- When whisking in the egg yolks, do so vigorously so that they fully incorporate into the batter.
This holiday season, celebrate deliciously with this sour cream raisin pie!
Shortcut Pie Crust Tip
If you are in a pinch for time use a premade pie crust.
Keeping a stash of them in my freezer lets me whip up a pie with no notice.
Sour Cream Raisin Pie is fast to make and especially during the holidays this tip takes time out of the baking process.
If you love making your own crust from scratch, go for it!
Simply follow the instructions to pre-bake or blind bake before filling and baking the pie.
Read Also: Campbell’s Chicken Pot Pie Recipe
How To Ensure Your Meringue Sets Up Properly
Trying to get meringue to set up properly is always a big challenge for most people. Despite how simple many professional chefs and YouTubers make it look, meringues are extremely likely to fail as you try and beat them together.
The key to getting a meringue to set up properly is to understand what you are trying to do by making a meringue.
You whisk and beat the egg whites not only to break up the protein strands within the albumen but also to incorporate a ton of extra air. The protein strands within the egg white want to form links with themselves, and so they end up trapping the air in amongst the protein this trapping of air forces the mixture to increase in volume, giving it that literally airy and light texture.
However, the egg white proteins cannot do this if there are other things that get in the way of those bonds, especially fat.
This is usually why meringues dont set up properly in home kitchens because there is something stuck in the bowl, or you have used your hands and touched the egg whites too much.
Try and keep the bowl totally clean and let nothing touch the egg whites wash and thoroughly dry the whisk you are using before mixing, and use the egg whites as soon as you separate them from the yolk.
Also, make sure to keep the yolks away from the whites! The yolks are filled with fat that can ruin the whites.
Can Sour Cream Raisin Pie Be Frozen
I don’t recommend freezing this sour cream raisin pie. Custard based pies in general tend to not freeze very well, and this one has a meringue which also doesn’t hold up the best to freezing and thawing. When they thaw the filling is often watery, gross and even the crust gets soggy too. Its best to avoid freezing this pie and just eat it fresh if you want to enjoy it at its best.
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