Sour Cream raisin pie

I love sour cream raisin pie!
First and most importantly, you gotta good recipe?
Secondly, I'm interested regarding this delights origin.
My curiousity began about 15 yrs. ago when I motorcycled every free moment I had(41 of the 48 contigious states). I particularly enjoy the Rocky Mtn. states. I began noticing this dessert available at the "roadfood" stops I made. Most available in Montana, and both Dakotas it seemed, more extensively I'm sure.
As to origin, my romantic theory is, if a Pioneer had a milkcow, they would have sour cream. Back then, dried fruit was available, if you could afford. Just wondering????????

I've had this particular treat in Colorado and found it to be quite delicious. I use to work for Marie Callender's back in the day and it was one of our best sellers. I don't have a recipe for you though but you may want to try a internet search on Food Channel. Why not rehydrate the raisins with brandy or cognac? Seems like a great way to add flavor to any recipe!!! LOL

David O.

boyRD....... We're working off the same page! earlier inventoried, thinking to make this pie tomorrow. Found 1 tiny box of VERY dried out raisins, also some Craisins. Looked in our meager liquor stash, found a little Cointreau, Brandy and some kinda Mango concoction. Took a quick hit of the Mango thing, I think it just might give a little zip to the pie.
rouxdog

Sour Cream Raisin pie is indiginous to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Finding it anywhere else is probably just by chance.

Kind of like finding a Kentucky Hot Brown in Vermont- which I actually did....once!

Here's a link to the one I use. I hope you enjoy it!
http://www.justusrestaurant.com/RECIPES/PIES/SOURCREAMRAISINPIE.html

The Best Sour Cream Raisin Pie you will
ever encounter is at Lyles Cafe in
The Tiny Town of Winthrop, Minnesota
Southwest of Minneapolis on the way to New Ulm, Minnesota.
New Ulm is Home to one of the Oldest Family Breweries still
Operating in the USA, August Schell Brewing Co. 140 years

quote:

Originally posted by wanderingjew

Sour Cream Raisin pie is indiginous to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Finding it anywhere else is probably just by chance.

Kind of like finding a Kentucky Hot Brown in Vermont- which I actually did....once!

I have seen this pie all over the U.S. as we are a wandering society. I've also had a great hot brown in other places than Kentucky. It's just that a lot of people from the north east and east have traveled out west and brought these recipes with them. It may not be exactly the same dish as regional ingredients are a little different than where the recipe originated but probably very similar.

I have been jonesing for sour cream raisin pie for months.  This weekend will find me in the eastern half of Iowa.  Any suggestions where I might be able to find it from Des Moines east?

Here is our recipe for sour cream raisin pie:

FARMER’S KITCHEN SOUR CREAM RAISIN PIE
2 cups sour cream
4 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)
1 cup sugar
4 heaping teaspoons flour
1½ cups raisins

Stir sour cream and egg yolks in a saucepan. Add sugar, flour, and raisins and mix. Cook over medium heat until raisins are plump and mixture is glossy.
Pour into a 10-inch baked piecrust.

For the meringue
4 to 8 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
4 to 5 tablespoons sugar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until frothy. Add sugar slowly until peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, spread meringue over warm pie filling. Spread over pie edge to ensure firm seal. Swirl top of meringue with spatula to create peaks. Bake at 350ºF until peaks are
golden brown.

Mark-
I sure do wish I could make it over to your place for a slice of your mother's excellent sour cream raisin pie, but it is a little too far west in the state for this trip.  I am flying in and out of Quad Cities.

Buffetbuster,
Do you know your agenda? If you are dining close to Des Moines, I might be able swing over and write off as a business trip. (Heh heh)

My eastern half Iowa favorite restaurant is Augusta Restaurant in the small town of Oxford, IA off I-80 just west of Iowa City. They have homemade pies but they don't say which on the menu.

Davydd-
I was just on their website because of their BPT.  So, they have good pies, too?  Okay, they are going on the list as a possibility.

Blizzardstormus-
What an offer!  I will send you a PM.

   Augusta Restaurant's BPT is VERY good & HUGE!! The rest of their menu looks good, also. Their burger was named one of the top 10 burgers this year.

From their website, the Augusta Restaurant looks upscale.  The photo shows linen tableclothes and they recommend reservations.  Sure doesn't seem like the typical place to get a good BPT and pie.  Maybe they are less formal at lunch, which would be when I could stop in.

I had my first taste of sour cream raisin pie at the Norse Nook in Osseo, WI more than 30 years ago.  This place and this pie were one of about 10 restaurants excerpted from the original Roadfood book by Esquire Magazine.  I believe this article did a lot to put roadfood and the Sterns on the map, so to speadk

 I see that the Nook is still around, though it looks to have expanded to additional locations and become a bit "corporate."  When i was there, it was a small rural diner in a tiny town.

NB:  The other places mentioned in the Esquire article that I can remember are/were:

The Orange Inn (Laguna Beach, CA)
Arthur Bryant's Barbecue (Kansas City, Mo)
Louie Mueller (Taylor TX, though originally listed as in Waelder)
Ma Groover's Pig 'n Plate (Valdosta, GA)
Doe's Eat Place (Greenville, MS)
Shields Date Farm (not sure about this one)
Nunan's Lobster Hut (Kennebunkport, ME)
The Dorset Inn (not sure about this one either, but there was a Vermont diner) (Dorset, VT)

Corrections/additions welcomed.  Remember, this list is from the Esquire article (August 1978)

The Augusta Restaurant is kind of upscale meets small town cafe. Clientele is still very casual. In fact when I stopped there a dozen Harleys were parked out front. It is definitely roadfood but eclectic with lots of surprises on the menu because the owners are expats from Hurricane Katrina bringing their Louisiana flavor yet blending with local Iowa traditions as witnessed by their award winning BPT sandwich. Oxford is a tiny town and the restaurant is in an old downtown center building with a storefront look.

Augusta Restaurant

I doubt if I'll ever see it around here in Florida but if I do I will give it a shot.

A big thanks to Roadfooder blizzardstormus, who drove all the way from Atlantic, Iowa to Des Moines tonight to meet me for dinner.  Besides his excellent company, he also brought with him a slice of sour cream raisin pie and a slice of gooseberry.  Despite all the food I ate today, the sour cream raisin pie is long gone.  We also split a slice of the sour cream raisin pie at the Machine Shed, where we had dinner and the the one from The Farmer's Kitchen (his restaurant) was clearly the better!

Cliff, I thoroughly enjoyed our meal at the Machine Shed. I'm glad the pie held up.

 I didn't know you can do this....copy a post from one thread to another.... this one was from another sour cram raisin pie thread from 2008
 RE: Weekend in Omaha/Council Bluffs - Tue, 04/8/08 10:50 PM



 
wow......Beautiful .....I fell in love with sour cream raisin pie last year when I took Michael Stern's advice and plunged into one of those beauties at Lange’s Café - Pipestone, MN . 
It was my first piece of sour cream raisin pie and just like my first experience with sex you begin to wonder how something so innocent could make me feel so guilty when I ate the whole freekin pie............... I'll never forget what's her name and I'll never forget my first piece ---------- of sour cream raisin pie.

Here is your Lange's Cafe sour cream raisin pie that I had last year.

blizzardstormus
 
I'm glad the pie held up.

Held up?  In all honesty, it was the single best thing I ate during my weekend in Iowa.  Thanks again.  Or should I thank your mom? 

Here is a poor photo of the sour cream raisin pie we shared at Machine Shed.

Not bad, but we agreed, this pie doesn't work as well with a graham cracker crust.

blizzardstormus


Here is our recipe for sour cream raisin pie:
 
 
FARMER’S KITCHEN SOUR CREAM RAISIN PIE
2 cups sour cream
4 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)
1 cup sugar
4 heaping teaspoons flour
1½ cups raisins

Stir sour cream and egg yolks in a saucepan. Add sugar, flour, and raisins and mix. Cook over medium heat until raisins are plump and mixture is glossy.
Pour into a 10-inch baked piecrust.

For the meringue
4 to 8 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
4 to 5 tablespoons sugar

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until frothy. Add sugar slowly until peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, spread meringue over warm pie filling. Spread over pie edge to ensure firm seal. Swirl top of meringue with spatula to create peaks. Bake at 350ºF until peaks are
golden brown.

 
I've never had sour cream raisin pie, but I was in a pie-making mood and decided to try out this recipe.
 
I had some trouble with the crust. I used a recipe that promised a very tender, nigh-waterproof crust. But it was so tender that it tore apart as I was transferring it to the pie pan. I consoled myself with the sentiment that has consoled many generations of pie makers: "No one can see a bottom crust anyway." And meringue covers a multitude of errors.
 
I felt very unsure about how long to cook the custard; it seemed as if it was glossy from the beginning. So I just cooked it until it had boiled a bit, in hopes of destroying all the alpha-amylase. I wasn't sure how much it would thicken on standing; I thought that there was a big risk that it would make a sloppy, soupy filling.
 
The meringue came out great. I was a little surprised that this recipe used a fairly low heat for the meringue instead of a broiler, and I had expected to use the creme brulee torch to adjust the browning. But it came out so nicely that I thought that I was more likely to harm it with the torch than help it.
 
The result:
Sour cream raisin pie by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
Sour cream raisin pie by Ralph Melton, on Flickr
 
It worked out better than I expected; it sliced neatly and held together much better than I'd feared. And it tasted very good; a nice combination of gentle sweetness tempered by the the sour cream with the winy depth of raisins.
We shared it with Alex Bodnar, the proprietor of the restaurant we were at, and he found it equally novel and delicious.
 
Many thanks to blizzardstormus for the recipe!

Ralph, Mom said that your pie looks perfect! Too bad we couldn't figure a way to bring Sour Cream Raisin Pie to NOLA.
 
Mark
Farmer's Kitchen

Ralph, that is a really good looking pie.  If I had known there was going to be sour cream raisin pie there that night I would have blown off my family obligation!

buffetbuster, I'd considered telling you ahead of time, but I didn't want to get your hopes up too much for my first sour cream raisin pie. Next time, though, I'll try to make sure you get a slice.