Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Momofuku Milk Bar’s Crack Pie

My second Daring Bakers’ challenge is from Rachel from pizzarosa.  I had options.  There was a fruit pie, a crostata, a chocolate caramel tart(tempting…) and a crack pie.  Guess which one I picked?  Ok, not really a guess since the title of this post says crack pie.  But how could I resist baking something with a name like that?

  Forgive me for being a little late, bakers.  School’s out for summer.  I did get the progeny to help with this a little.  She put the eggs in the mixer.  She also ate a lot of the crumbled loaf out of the bowl.  She would have been happy if I just stopped there.

ingredients for crust:

• 9 tbl. unsalted butter, divided into 6 tbl. & 3tbl., at room temperature
• 5 tbl. + 2 tsp. light brown sugar, packed
• 2 tbl. sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 3/4 c. + 2 tbl. old fashioned oats
• 1/2 c. (62 g.) unbleached flour
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda

ingredients for filling:

• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. light brown sugar, packed
• 1 tbl. dry milk powder or buttermilk powder
• 1/2 c. (1 stick or 8 tbl.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 6 & 1/2 tbl. heavy cream
• 4 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly butter a loaf pan, then line bottom and two sides with parchment paper.  Set aside.

The crust is a two step process.  For the first part you need 6 tbl. butter, 4 tbl. brown sugar, white sugar, egg, oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Combine the butter and 2 sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add egg and beat for 1 minute. Add flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder and salt and beat for 1 minute more.Pour  into your loaf pan and press out to sides of pan and even the top.Bake until light golden brown, about 18 minutes. Transfer pan to wire rack and cool completely. Keep the oven on.Once cool, it’s time for remaining butter and brown sugar.Crumble loaf into  very small pieces into a bowl. Add the butter and sugar.  Use your fingers to completely incorporate all the ingredients.Lightly butter a deep dish glass or ceramic pie plate. Pour mixture into pie plate.  Use your fingers to press mixture evenly onto the bottom and 1″ up the sides. Set aside.Now it’s time to make the filling.  Whisk light brown sugar, white sugar, milk powder and salt into a medium bowl or an electric stand mixer bowl. (I didn’t have milk powder, so I substituted buttermilk powder.  Seems fine).  Add melted butter and whisk until blended.  Add cream, then egg yolks and vanilla(the recipe calls for only 1 tsp. of vanilla.  I always use 2.  As my friend Allie says, it makes it taste more homemade-y). Whisk until well blended.Pour filling into crust.  The recipe I followed warned about the top browning too quickly, so I covered mine with aluminum foil.  Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 325°, remove foil and bake until edges are set but center still juggles a little, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack, then chill uncovered overnight.

  Here’s how it looked coming out of the fridge. Hmmm, not very pretty. I may have just made the crack is wack pie.

The recipe says to dust with powdered sugar.  That’s better.

  Ok, wow.  Now that I’ve tasted this, I see why they call it crack pie.  It doesn’t look like much, but it whispering to me from the refrigerator. I’m not sure if I should thank Rachel for this recipe, or curse her name while squeezing into my incredible shrinking bikini.  Like a true addict, I’m going to share it with friends and get them hooked, too.  Because that’s what friends do.