Rum and raisin pie

Before I moved in with the boyfriend I never experienced any kind of beyond-the-basic TV. The idea of paying for extra channels was ridiculous to my dad, damn kids spending too much time in front of the box anyway!
Now of course I tape all of my ridiculous shows to have on in the background while I play with my Tumblr machine
Parenthood is one of 'my shows'-so incredibly flat and featureless that you get the sense that all the dialogue was written by one guy talking to himself in the mirror. High drama is story lines featuring vegetarianism *GASP*, black boyfriend *SWOON*, and being punched on a boat *PLOP*. Don't judge!
I was watching the Thanksgiving episode a couple of days ago which featured the perfectionist of the family, Julia, making some pies. I really love Julia, she is the character I can identify most in the show because she brings home the bacon and cooks it in the pan while her husband deals with most of the childcare.
Anyway, so she's making all these pies in random weird/traditional flavors, like pumpkin and potato or whatever and her kid walks into the kitchen and knocks the rum and raisin pie off the counter.
I've never heard of rum and raisin pie before, but it sounded immediately delicious and alcoholic.
Here's what I did
Pie crust is from Brave Tart and is incredible. Her blog is amazeballs enough that I don't mind the fact that she doesn't update very often. Its a very good example of the fact that a food blog should have beautiful and creative photographs, ahem.
The rum and raisin filling is from here (basically a custard with rum and raisins added)
And the Italian Meringue topping is by Monica Galetti

Chocolate pie crust - this makes enough crust for 8 mini tart tins
3.75 ounces sugar
1.25 ounces brown sugar
scrapings from half a vanilla bean
1/2 tsp instant coffee powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
4.5 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
2 egg yolks
9 ounces all purpose flour, sifted (use white rice flour for gluten free)
1.75 ounces cocoa, sifted
Mixture for rolling
2 ounces cocoa plus 2 ounces powdered sugar, sifted together
With a hand or stand mixer, combine sugars, vanilla bean seeds, coffee powder, salt and butter on medium speed. Mix only until ingredients are thoroughly combined, but by no means light and fluffy. Add in the yolks, one at a time then reduce speed to low. Add in the dry ingredients all at once and mix until homogenous.
If you’re comfortable with dough and a pin, you can roll it right away. Otherwise, form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate about 15 minutes to make the it easier to handle.
You can refrigerate the dough for up to a week or freeze for several months. Before rolling, set the dough out and let it slowly come to room temperature over a few hours.
Preheat the oven to 350° and prepare a set of 4” tart shells by greasing very lightly with pan spray.
Dust the counter with the prepared cocoa/powdered sugar mixture. Don’t use flour, it will toughen the dough and dull the richness of the chocolate color. Divide the dough in half and roll to 1/4” thickness. Use a knife to portion the rolled out dough into squares just slightly larger than each tart shell.
Set a dough square over the tart shell and use your thumbs to press the dough into the corners of the pan. Press the overhanging dough against the edges of the tart pan to trim off the excess and leave the dough flush with the edges.
Repeat with the remaining dough until all tart shells have been filled, then dock each tart lightly with a fork. The dough is extremely forgiving and can be rerolled two or three times.
Bake for 15-18 minutes. After 7 minutes or so, check on the tarts. Some may have formed an air bubble; use a fork to gently poke a small hole in the bubble to deflate it. Continue baking until the tarts have become firm and dry to the touch.

Rum and raisin filling 
2 cups golden raisins 
1/4 to 1/3 cup dark rum 
1/2 cup sugar  
3 tablespoons cornstarch 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
2 large eggs 
1 1/2 cups milk 
3 1/2 tablespoons butter  
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 1/2 cups frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed

Soak the raising in the rum for 2 days
Combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and eggs in a large bowl, and stir well with a whisk.
Heat milk over medium-high heat in a small, heavy saucepan to 180° or until tiny bubbles form around edge (do not boil). Gradually add hot milk to sugar mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Place mixture in pan; cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in butter.
Spoon custard into a bowl; place bowl in a large ice-filled bowl for 10 minutes or until custard comes to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Remove bowl from ice. Stir in raisins and vanilla; spoon mixture into prepared crust. Spread whipped topping evenly over filling. Loosely cover and chill 8 hours or until firm.

Italian Meringue topping
2 egg whites (leftover from the crust)
125g caster sugar

Dissolve the sugar in 35ml of water then heat to 121C (use a thermometer).
Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and in a slow steady stream whisk in the sugar syrup. Continue to whisk until the meringue is cold and smooth.

Pipe the meringue over the pies and colour with a blowtorch or under the grill. And then omnomnomnomnom