Something good finally came out of my binge-watching Netflix! We made our first Crack Pie and just like that, it’s now our instant favorite!
I first learned about the Crack Pie when I watched an an episode at Chef’s Table featuring Christina Tosi (of the Milk Bar fame) and there she made kwento about how the Crack Pie came to be. It was just something she made out of the ingredients available in her kitchen (butter, flour, eggs, powdered milk, among others), and the result was a humble-looking pie that surprised everyone at Momofuku Noodle Bar (where Christina worked) with its fantastic gooey butter filling and lovely toasted oats crust.
After the Crack Pie, another sensational hit came in the form of Cereal Milk Panna Cotta, and that’s where the idea for the Milk Bar was born.
Luckily, epicurious has the recipe for Crack Pie and yesterday, with nothing major planned out for the day, AJ and I decided to just try it. We have all the ingredients at home, save for the milk powder which AJ bought at our neighbor’s sari-sari store.
AJ prepared the oat cookie crust, which he baked in our convection oven as one big cookie piece.
Next, I prepared the pie crust. The gigantic cookie that we baked was crumbled by hand, then mixed with melted butter and (more) brown sugar. I placed all mixture in the pie dish and pressed it evenly onto the bottom and sides of the pie dish. To achieve a more crunchy texture, we placed it back into the convection oven and baked it for 5 more minutes.
While I was prepping the pie crust, AJ prepared the pie filling by following the epicurious recipe, alternating nothing except maybe adding a little more salt to the recipe to achieve a more salty caramel taste to the filling.
Here is it being poured into the toasted oats crust in beautiful brown color:
It looks like a winner already kahit hindi pa nabe-bake, hehe!
Total baking time was supposed to be 30 minutes at 350°F but because we’re using a convection oven, it stretched to almost an hour. But no complaints there especially when you have the whole apartment smelling of caramel, toasted oats and butter. Yuummm!
Once baked, we have to cool the pie for 2 hours pa. This was probably the most antagonizing 2 hours of my life, hehe!
And when I finally got a taste of the Crack Pie, I knew instantly that one bite isn’t going to be enough.
It has a sweet, buttery taste that is natural and simple. It makes me think of caramel but without the overpowering sweetness. I love how our toasted oats pie crust came out; it was crunchy on all sides so I guess that means we baked it good the first time! The filling was just awesome; not too much sweetness there and adding a little bit more salt helped balance the sweetness.
This recipe is definitely for keeps! I enjoyed it with a cup of strong black coffee. It gave me some needed boost!
Give epicurious’s recipe a try soon and enjoy your crack pie =)