Momofuku’s Crack Pie

13 July 2011 9,872 views 9 Comments

PIE-A-DAY #31

This recipe comes to us from Christina Tosi a pastry chef at Momofuku Milk Bar in New York.

Anyone who has taken a bite of this Milk Bar best seller immediately knows the reason for the sassy name. Once you start eating this rich, salty-sweet pie with its oat cookie crust, you won’t be able to stop.

Keep reading for the recipe…

Momofuku’s Crack Pie

Oat Cookie Crust

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, room temperature, divided
5 1/2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar, divided
2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt

Filling

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
6 1/2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
4 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar (for dusting)

Oat Cookie Crust

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper; coat with nonstick spray. Combine 6 tablespoons butter, 4 tablespoons brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons sugar in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat mixture until light and fluffy, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl, about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat until pale and fluffy. Add oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and beat until well blended, about 1 minute. Turn oat mixture out onto prepared baking pan; press out evenly to edges of pan. Bake until light golden on top, 17 to 18 minutes. Transfer baking pan to rack and cool cookie completely.

Using hands, crumble oat cookie into large bowl; add 3 tablespoons butter and 1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar. Rub in with fingertips until mixture is moist enough to stick together. Transfer cookie crust mixture to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Using fingers, press mixture evenly onto bottom and up sides of pie dish. Place pie dish with crust on rimmed baking sheet.

Filling

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Whisk both sugars, milk powder, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add melted butter and whisk until blended. Add cream, then egg yolks and vanilla and whisk until well blended. Pour filling into crust. Bake pie 30 minutes (filling may begin to bubble). Reduce oven temperature to 325°F. Continue to bake pie until filling is brown in spots and set around edges but center still moves slightly when pie dish is gently shaken, about 20 minutes longer. Cool pie 2 hours in pie dish on rack. Chill uncovered overnight. DO AHEAD Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover; keep chilled.

Sift powdered sugar lightly over top of pie. Cut pie into wedges and serve cold.

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

81599 CommentsMomofuku%27s+Crack+Pie+2011-07-13+17%3A00%3A37Good+Food »

Happy Scrappy Blogger said:

I've made this recipe, and it's always a hit with guests. I thought it would be too sweet. But with the oatmeal cookie crust, it's pretty good. It's also surprisingly easy. It's just an old-fashioned chess pie, which is what we call it at home, Momofuku chess pie. Got tired of people referring to every decadent recipe as 'crack ______'.

# 13 July 2011 at 11:55 AM

bilgibank said:

You’ve taken another impressive step, my friend. You are a true leader in this industry. Thanks.

# 14 July 2011 at 5:40 PM

Tina Sosa Herrera said:

I recently made this pie too and I was really hoping the oatmeal crust would be more on the crisp side all the way through, but it turned very gooey towards the middle. People ate it just the same, but I was just wondering if I did something wrong. Side note: Two things I KNOW I did wrong 1) didn't have powdered milk, so I didn't add it 2) tried to serve it cold, but it turned room temp before people ate it.

# 7 August 2011 at 1:48 PM

Mabelboo said:

I made this pie, and am confused. The LA Times has a recipe for this pie and makes 2 9 inch pies with almost identical quantities of ingredients. My pie is cooling now. Can anyone else say if it made 1 or 2? Also, the top is really brown and ugly. Is that right?

# 16 August 2011 at 8:36 PM

Daleybaker said:

Thanks for the "rename", it was a little hard to explain to my 10 and 6 year old why it is called "crack". First time making it and still in the oven, we'll see how it turns out.

# 4 September 2011 at 11:29 AM

J2thaB said:

really? because my 10 yo saw the name, and recognized the inuendo from school program. maybe its time to have the just say no talk.

# 24 November 2011 at 10:00 AM

Blake said:

Hi, i am finally close to completing my long awaited or more like overdue Celebrity Chef film project.
You might have heard about it over the years.
Recently I got accepted to a Kickstarter funding and we just launched it.
Please take a look, contribute if you can and spread the word to your friends who might be interested. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1741525098/ny…

# 29 December 2011 at 11:57 AM

vikt recept said:

Article on The Topic…

[...]listed here are a couple of web links to webpages which I link to because we think these are worthy of visiting[...]…

# 2 January 2012 at 12:00 PM

Stacey said:

I made one 10" pie with the ingredients, and the filling didn't come to the top. Mine also is an even brown all over, but it's still cooling so haven't tasted it yet. I have tried the original in NYC and believe theirs was lighter in color with darker brown spots. Well, it'll be the taste which matters so we'll see…

# 6 January 2012 at 1:14 PM