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Raisin Cream Pie
1 pint milk or sour cream 1 1/3 cups raisins, ground through food chopper with finest cutter, measured after grinding 3 tablespoons sugar 2 eggs, beaten 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1/8 teaspoon salt Heat the milk. Mix together the remaining ingredients, and stir in the hot milk. Bake in a crust which has a built-up scalloped edge. Fruit Mince Pie (With the real mince flavor) 3 quarts chopped apples (the apples may be quartered and cored without paring) 1 pound raisins 3/4 cup lemon juice 1 1/4 cups grape juice 1 1/4 cups liquid cereal coffee 3 cups sugar 1/2 cup molasses 12 ripe olives, stoned and chopped 2 ounces chopped pine nuts, or pecans (1/3 cup) 2 ounces chopped walnuts (1/3 cup) 2 ounces chopped raw peanuts (1/3 cup) 1 tablespoon salt 1/4 pound chopped citron 1 pint stewed prunes, from which the seeds have been removed Mix all the ingredients, heat slowly, and cook over a very moderate heat for several hours, stirring occasionally so that the mixture will not scorch, till it turns dark in color. It may then be canned like any fruit, and kept till needed.
Some may prefer a little more sugar than this recipe calls for. Three kinds of nuts are used because a sufficient quantity of one kind would make the flavor too prominent.
A baked custard pie thickened only by eggs and the body of ground raisins, so the handling is all in the crust and the oven. The original gives no temperature or time, which is the main thing to supply.
- OvenFor a custard filling in an unbaked shell, start at 425F for about 15 minutes to set the pastry, then drop to 325F for 25 to 35 minutes. The filling is done when the outer inch is set and the centre still trembles slightly; it firms as it cools.
- A pint of milkTwo cups. If you use the sour cream option, bear in mind that home-soured or dairy-soured cream of the period was often thinner than today's thick commercial sour cream; if yours is very stiff, loosen it with a little milk to pouring consistency.
- Grinding the raisinsA food chopper with the finest cutter produces a coarse paste, not a puree. A food processor pulsed in short bursts is the closest equivalent. Measure the 1 1/3 cups after grinding, as the recipe insists, since whole raisins pack very differently.
- TemperingAdd the hot milk to the egg and raisin mixture slowly and in a thin stream while stirring, or the eggs will curdle before they reach the oven. Warm milk, not boiling, is enough.
- The built-up scalloped edgeA high built-up rim is useful as well as ornamental here: the filling is thin when it goes in, and the raised edge helps keep it from running over the crust while it sets.
- SweetnessThree tablespoons of sugar is very restrained by modern pie standards, because the raisins carry most of the sweetness. Taste the custard before baking if you want more.
- YieldThe quantity suits roughly one 9-inch single-crust pie, though the recipe names no pan size. Cool completely before cutting; a warm custard pie will weep.