I came across a recipe for sour cream pie and was curious. I had the few ingredients in my kitchen, so I gave it a try. This one surprised me. I expected the small amount of raisins would be a mix-in, like adding chocolate chips. I was wrong. I would describe this as a raisin pie, since the raisins end up dominating the flavor.
Looking at the time period, lots of people were cooking with raisins. Raisins are rich in iron, and iron deficiency in the human diet was first identified in the 1930’s. Print advertisements from the time promote raisins as “nourishing and economical.” Perhaps this pie was considered a “healthy” option in it’s day.
I had never heard of a sour cream pie with raisins but with some research I realized, this was a popular dessert from the 1930’s and 40’s.
I’m using a recipe from the Zion Evangelical United Brethren Church in North Dakota, the EUB is one of our predecessor denominations before we all became the United Methodist Church in 1968.
Mrs. George Shultz’s recipe did not include much in the way of directions, but I studied several recipes and made a few modifications.
First, I’m going to prebake my pie shell according to package directions
Next, in a saucepan I’m going to mix my one cup sugar with 3 T cornstarch plus the salt, cloves, cinnamon and raisins. Next we add a cup of sour cream and a half cup of half and half or milk. Give this a good stir and cook this over med-high heat until it bubbles and starts to thicken. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 more minutes.
Remove the filling from the heat. Tempering the egg yolks is a little tricky. You want to whisk the egg yolks while slowly adding some of the hot filling. If you raise the temperature of the eggs too quickly, you will end up with little scrambled egg bits in your filling. If that happens at any point, don’t worry, just blend this reserved mixture well in a blender. We add the tempered eggs back into the pot and bring all of it to a gentle boil for about 2 minutes.
The filling goes in the prebaked pie shell.
Now we take the 3 egg whites and whip them with 6 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt.
The meringue goes on top with a bit of flair.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, cool to room temperature and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
(This is the modified list of ingredients I used)
1 cup sugar
1cup sour cream
½ cup of half and half
½ cup raisins
3 T cornstarch plus the salt, cloves, cinnamon
3 egg yolks
*Special equipment: a whisk
Sour cream pie with raisins. That little half cup of raisins added flavor and color to the pie. The raisins plumped up and became very prominent. I'd say it's a tasty pie if you enjoy raisins. I personally look forward to a chocolate pie next time.
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This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, TN. Contact is Joe Iovino.
This video was first posted on September 26, 2023.
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