Momofuku Crack Pie

Addictive as crack (or so they tell me)… Momofuku Crack Pie is sold at David Chang’s Momofuku Milk Bar. The genius behind this infamous dessert is Momofuku Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi, a self confessed sweet tooth.

Here’s what she had to say about Crack Pie:

It’s something that I made one day for family meal at WD-50—we used to call it Sunday Funday when the chef was away. They would always tease me for eating all this candy and sugar, so I thought it would be funny to make this sugar pie.
(from nymag.com)

After reading so much about it, I knew I HAD to try it. With a deceivingly simple list of ingredients (according to Tosi it’s just “brown sugar, regular sugar, butter, cream, salt, and a little corn flour to hold it together”) – and a plain appearance I knew there had to be something special about it to warrant all that fuss.

So last Saturday, I got my act together and called up my partner in baking crime, Jose. First up was a trip to the supermarket to buy sticks of butter and a whole carton of eggs. After seeing the amount of butter in the recipe, Jose decided that it should be instead dubbed: “Cholesterol Pie.”

We worked with a recipe published in the LA Times – and ran into some trouble when we belatedly realised that an American stick of butter was half the size of an Australian stick (WHOOPS.) – rendering our first cookie batch oily and gluggy.

(I’m still not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing that we were so ready to use the 3 1/2 sticks of butter the recipe called for haha. It was definitely a relief when we realised that when converted to Australian measurements, the recipe would only call for a rather more modest 1 3/4 sticks between 2 pies…!)

So how did it taste? As amazing and as rich as you imagined. Caramelly and vanilla-y and a little bit eggy, with a satisfyingly buttery oat cookie crust. I liked it better after it chilled in the fridge overnight, but it was still very good straight out of the oven (albeit a bit wobbly). Jose’s heart tin took the exact listed time to bake, but I found that my rectangular tin took a little bit extra because it was so deep.

Whatever you do, this pie is meant to be shared!!

(adapted from the LA Times and converted to Australian/metric measurements)

Note: Adapted from Momofuku. This pie calls for 2 (10-inch) pie tins. You can substitute 9-inch pie tins, but note that the pies will require additional baking time, about 5 minutes, due to the increased thickness of the filling.

Note from me: Apparently an American stick of butter weighs 113 grams, whereas an Australian stick of butter weighs 250 grams. For my sanity, I’ve just rounded the recipe up by 12grams and just cut the sticks in half – but if you’re a stickler – feel free to use the grams measurement. Also an American cup is 0.946 352 946 of a metric cup, but I didn’t convert those measurements because I’m not crazy.

Cookie for crust

Ingredients
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon plain flour
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 a stick (113g) softened butter
1/3 cup (71g) light brown sugar
3 tablespoons (35g) sugar
1 egg
Scant 1 cup (100g) rolled oats

Method
1. Heat the oven to 190˚C
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Whisk the egg into the butter mixture until fully incorporated.
5. With the mixer running, beat in the flour mixture, a little at a time, until fully combined. Stir in the oats until incorporated.

6. Spread the mixture onto a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking sheet

7. Bake until golden brown and set, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to the touch on a rack.

8. Crumble the cooled cookie to use in the crust.

Pie Crust

Ingredients
Crumbled cookie for crust
1/4 stick (57g) butter
1 1/2 tablespoons (21g) brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Method
1. Combine the crumbled cookie, butter, brown sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse until evenly combined and blended (a little of the mixture clumped between your fingers should hold together).

2. Divide the crust between 2 (10-inch) pie tins.

3. Press the crust into each shell to form a thin, even layer along the bottom and sides of the tins.

4. Set the prepared crusts aside while you prepare the filling.

Filling

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups (298g) sugar
3/4 cup plus a scant 3 tablespoons (198g) light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon (21g) milk powder
1 stick (113g) butter, melted
3/4 cup plus a scant 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 egg yolks
2 prepared crusts
Powdered sugar to garnish

Method
1. Heat the oven to 180˚C
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, brown sugar, salt and milk powder.

3. Whisk in the melted butter, then whisk in the heavy cream and vanilla.

4. Gently whisk in the egg yolks, being careful not to add too much air.
5. Divide the filling evenly between the 2 prepared pie shells.

6. Bake the pies, one at a time, for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 160˚C and bake until the filling is slightly jiggly and golden brown (similar to a pecan pie), about 10 minutes. Remove the pies and cool on a rack.

7. Refrigerate the cooled pies until well chilled. The pies are meant to be served cold, and the filling will be gooey. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

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