Page 202 - United States of Pie

Chocolate Raisin Pie

I love the combination of chocolate and raisins. From Raisinets to
a divine raisin-studded chocolate coffee cake that my parents used
to buy me as a treat, chocolates and raisins are a match made in
heaven. So when I saw this recipe in Jean Hewitt’s New York Times
Heritage Cookbook, I was more than a little excited.

Jean Hewitt got started at the Times in 1961 as an assistant to the
venerable Craig Claiborne, head food critic for the paper. She went
on to run the Times’s test kitchen and to become a successful food
writer in her own right, penning a number of cookbooks, four of
which went on to win James Beard Awards. Heritage is a tome of a
cookbook that explores the regional cuisines of the United States; it
contains recipes for everything from soups, to casseroles, to the odd

game dish, to breads, and, of course, to pies. First published in
1972, the cookbook is now out of print. If you ever spot a copy, I
encourage you to buy it. The recipes recall dishes from another time
—when food was not so processed and “fat” was not a bad word.
The original recipe for this pie, as featured in Heritage, came from
Southern California, and I’ve stayed fairly true to it. I’ve altered only

the amount of sugar (a little less) and the sort of chocolate used
(semisweet). The pie is rich and sweet and, unlike most pies,
actually gets better from sitting for a day.

½ recipe Standard Pie Dough

1¼ cups raisins
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream
2 ounces semisweet chocolate