Yeah, you read that right. Sour cream and raisin pie. I had never heard of it either. Thus I was somewhat taken aback when I asked my dad what kind of dessert he wanted me to make for his Father's Day dinner and he hit me with sour cream and raisin pie.
It turns out, however, that sour cream and raisin pies are not (as is popularly imagined) traditional fruit-style pies in which large quantities of raisins mixed with corn starch are baked inside a crust. And no, the sour cream is not served on the top as ice cream is on other pies. Instead, the sour cream, raisins, and cornstarch are all mixed together (along with sugar, nutmeg, and lemon juice) to create a custard like substance that turned out to be extremely tasty. I know because I ingested copious amounts of it while mixing everything together. A half-finished version of the one I attempted is pictured below (minus the meringue). Why is there no photo of the finished product? Well now there's a story.
You may also be curious as to why I am making the pie now - a full week after Father's Day. You see, sour cream and raisin is the first pie I have ever attempted that requires the filling to be placed in a fully cooked crust. So a week ago, I went about my business making the crust as usual, moulding it to the pie dish, and sticking it in the over. To my horror, the crust started shrivelling up around the edges and bubbling in the middle.
At first I thought I'd done something wrong mixing the crust (too much water or something). Then a friend referred me to these wonderful little marble-sized balls called pie weights: you basically just put them at the bottom of the pie plate and they stop the bubbling. Furthermore, I also learned the value of pricking the dough with a fork, so as to allow even distribution air and heat.
So, armed with my weights, I set out once again to try and make this elusive pie...
Alas, there was no sour cream and raisin pie - on Father's Day or a week later. Oh my dear reader I was so, so close!!! Everything was assembled: the (still slightly misshapen) crust was good enough to hold the surprisingly delectable custard, the oven was set to 400, ready to heat the pie and brown the tops of its finishing touch: the meringue. I was whipping up the egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar when all of a sudden I heard a big crash. Upon turning around I was aghast with shock and despair. Somehow, my beautiful MacBook (which I was using for the recipe) had fallen off the little living-room-to-kitchen window ledge and hit the pie on the counter below. The crash I heard was both computer and pie meeting the floor.
By some miracle, the MacBook seems to have survived - I am, in fact, working on it now. The sour cream and raisin pie, on the other hand, wasn't so fortunate. In addition to being badly disfigured, we strongly suspect Stella helped herself to some of the custard while we were attending to the computer - and no one was too eager to try a sour cream, raisin, and dog slobber pie.
Don't worry, though, I haven't given up yet. I may take a break from sour cream and raisin for a while (I've really been feeling strawberry rhubarb lately...). But I promise to let you know if I ever am successful in making one.
As for the mysterious toppling of the computer? For now I'm blaming the cat, but if I try and fail to make this pie again I may start to suspect something else...
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