Momofuku Crack Pie

This pie is ridiculous, to make and to eat. It's basically a bunch of butter, sugar, and eggs baked up into a delicious gooey sugary mess of a pie. My friend Katy and I made the pie for an Oscar Party last weekend. We're planning a trip to NYC in April and Momofuku Milk Bar (pork buns! cereal milk soft serve!) is most definitely on our list of must-eats. Apparently a whole pie at Milk Bar is $44 :O so, one less thing to try when we get there.

I think my favorite part of Crack Pie is the oatmeal cookie crust. It gets nice and moist and has just enough salt in it to cut through the super sweetness of the filling. Oh, and by the way, you'll need 9 eggs, about a cup of cream, a bunch of brown and white sugar, and 3 1/2 sticks of butter. Yep. But that should still cost you less than $44. We ended up under cooking ours a bit, so the filling oozed out when a slice was cut - but that did not make it any less delicious, just a little messy. We also skipped the powdered sugar garnish. I think it's sweet enough, and pretty enough, as is!

So first you make the giant oatmeal cookie for the crust. Then you cool and crumble the cookie up and make it into the pie crust. When the crust is all pressed into your pie plates you can mix up the filling and bake the pies. All in it took over 2 hours. The recipe makes two pies, so I definitely recommend that you have some sort of occasion at which to serve them. Or else you're going to end up with a shit load of pie in your fridge. And lemme tell you, this is the kind of dessert you'll attack with a spoon in the middle of the night.
Momofuku's Crack Pie
recipe via Los Angeles Times

Servings: Makes 2 pies (6 to 8 servings each)

Cookie for Crust
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (3 ounces) flour
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter
1/3 cup (2 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar
3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) sugar
1 egg
Scant 1 cup (3 1/2 ounces) rolled oats

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
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 and bake until golden brown and set, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to the touch on a rack. Crumble the cooled cookie to use in the crust.

Pie Crust
Crumbled cookie for crust
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 1/2 tablespoons (3/4 ounce) brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

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). Divide the crust between 2 (10-inch) pie tins. Press the crust into each shell to form a thin, even layer along the bottom and sides of the tins. Set the prepared crusts aside while you prepare the filling.

Pie Filling
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) sugar
3/4 cup plus a scant 3 tablespoons (7 ounces) light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon (3/4 ounce) milk powder
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
3/4 cup plus a scant 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 egg yolks
2 prepared crusts
Powdered sugar, garnish

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, brown sugar, salt and milk powder. Whisk in the melted butter, then whisk in the heavy cream and vanilla.
3. Gently whisk in the egg yolks, being careful not to add too much air.
4. Divide the filling evenly between the 2 prepared pie shells.
5. Bake the pies, one at a time, for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the filling is slightly jiggly and golden brown (similar to pecan pie), about 10 minutes. Remove the pies and cool on a rack.
6. 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.
Tips and Hints

• I suggest letting your pies get darker than ours, so that the filling sets a little firmer. Our pie dishes were 9 in and 9 1/2 so we had to cook the pies for a few extra minutes. Even so they could have used even more time, but don't worry, it will be delicious either way! Also, we baked our pies at the same time, so that probably contributed to the 'problem.'
  

• When pressing the crust into the pie pans focus on the bottom, not the sides. Our pies could have used a little thicker bottom crust and a thinner edge.

• You'll end up with a bunch of extra egg whites, here and here are some ideas about what to do with them! Or make a couple batches of these super easy Coconut Almond Macaroons.