Sour Cream Raisin Meringue Bars

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.

• pie crust

Old Fashioned Desserts

Sour Cream Raisin Pie is something my grandma made and yours probably did too. It isn’t as popular in today’s times, but there is a reason that the older generation still loves it. It’s an unexpected mix of sweet and sour cream, raisins, and warm spices like cinnamon and cloves.

I can’t lie to you. I had never tried Sour Cream Raisin Pie before making this version. When I used to manage a small town cafe, we often had it in the pie window, but I would snub my nose at it, because frankly it doesn’t sound that good in my opinion.

It turns out that my Dad loves sour this old fashioned dessert though. I didn’t know this because my Mom refused to make it and we never had it growing up. It was my Dad’s birthday and I decided to make something he would like seeing I didn’t get him a present. Parents can be the hardest to buy for by the way!

The only problem with this plan, is that I absolutely hate making pie crusts. I know, I know, I shared the best pie crust recipe with tips and tricks on how to make them great, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it! If you notice the hands in the photos, that was all my Mom’s doing. 😉

• best pie crust recipe

Oatmeal Raisin Bars

When I was paging through my Mom’s old church cookbooks, in search of a Sour Cream Raisin Pie recipe, I came across a few oatmeal raisin bar recipes as well. I noticed they used an oatmeal crumble crust and thought that sounded even better than a pie crust, especially seeing it meant I wouldn’t have to make one! Oatmeal and raisins is a classic flavor combination that we all know is great.

Some of the pie filling recipes looked questionable to me. They included cornstarch which I’m never a fan of. I called my friend Carol, who is my late Grandmother’s age, and asked her for a sour cream raisin pie recipe.

She went to her recipe cards and gave me a pie recipe that sounded great. I liked that it was simple, but had the warmth from spices like cinnamon and cloves.

Meringue Dessert Recipe

While I could have simply made oatmeal raisin bars, I didn’t want to leave out one of my favorite components to any pie, the meringue!

When I used to work at that small cafe, I took over the pie making when our pie maker retired. My favorite pie to make was lemon meringue. Many people are intimidated by making a meringue, but it really is simple when you follow a few important steps.

How to make a good meringue

Meringue is made from three simple ingredients, egg whites, cream of tartar and granulated sugar. If you don’t have cream of tartar in your spice cabinet, grab yourself a little jar because you can’t skip it. It allows the eggs to fluff up and hold more air.

Meringue comes out the best with room temperature egg whites. This step is already taken care of you, because you separate the eggs at the very beginning of these sour cream raisin bars, so they will be warmed some by time you make the meringue.

Clean Bowl & Beaters

The first and most important element to making a good meringue, is ensuring there is absolutely no fat or oil introduced to the egg whites. This means that you firstly need to make sure you are using a very clean and dry bowl and beaters to whip the egg whites.

If there is some residual oil on your beater, it won’t allow the egg whites to become whipped, no matter how long you beat them. separate eggs one by one into a small bowl, and then add the egg whites individually into the bigger mixing bowl.

Add Sugar Slowly

Next, you need to make sure to add the sugar gradually after the egg whites are frothy. Don’t try save yourself a few seconds by dumping it all in at once or it will take all the air out of the egg whites and your meringue will be ruined. Keep your eggs beating and slowly sprinkle in the sugar gradually.

Beating the Egg Whites Just Right

Beating the egg whites to the right consistency is the most difficult element to gauge if you don’t have experience making a meringue recipe. I promise you can do it though!

Keep in mind that if you don’t 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.

Don’t 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.

More Old Fashioned Dessert Recipes!

Baked Apples

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

• Mocha Peanut Squares
• Glazed Apple Pie Bars
• Sour Cream Cutout Cookies
• Rhubarb Custard Pie

Serving: 1 g | Calories: 261 kcal | Carbohydrates: 33 g | Protein: 5 g | Fat: 13 g | Saturated Fat: 7 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4 g | Cholesterol: 82 mg | Sodium: 159 mg | Fiber: 1 g | Sugar: 18 g