Momofuku Milk Bar - The Crack Pie Recipe

Martha Stewart said "crack" on national television.  I heard it with my own ears.  You can, too, if you go to this Eat Me Daily post.  Anyone familiar with the Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar in Manhattan knows that if you're talking crack, it's in reference to the crack pie David Chang whips up there.  Martha visited the now famous chef's concept bakery when it first opened, and she and only she could get him to divulge the recipe for this notoriously addictive pie.  Martha rocks.

This pie, as it turns out, rocks, too.  Here's why:

• It's got relatively few ingredients, and none of them fancy/unusual (at least this version)
• It's rather easy to make, and you only need a baking pan and a 10 inch pie pan
• It's delicious - really, really delicious... and I don't even like pies overall

First, the ingredients. The recipe on the show was by weight, but several good people around the web have converted this to volume measurements - something I didn't know right away as I furiously scribbled down the aired recipe and then nearly cry when I realized I don't own a food scale.  Thank you, web people.  I then halved the recipe for just one pie (the show's recipe was for 2, 10 inch pies) and made a couple key changes: I took out the dry milk, for one.  Why?  I don't think most people have dry milk around the house, I certainly didn't, and I feel the purpose of this recipe is the awesome convenience of not having to run out for special ingredients.  If you have dry milk, or want to go out and buy some, bless your heart.  Here is a version from The Boston Foodie left untouched by my meddling.  

I gotta warn you, any pie that has few ingredients is going to, obviously, have larger quantities of each: in this case that means lots of eggs... and lots of butter.  But seriously, it's called CRACK pie, so you can't really expect vitamins and minerals, can you? 

A note on the eggs: there are three yolks required for the recipe (hey, the original wanted FOUR).  Might seem like a waste of whites, especially if you don't get lucky and get a double yolk like I did (Ha!), BUT, did you know you can freeze your egg whites?  Yep.



Recipe: Momofuku Crack Pie - Peas Love Carrots Version (makes one 10-inch pie)

For the cookie:
1/4 cup unsalted, room temperature butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup light-brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 medium egg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt


For the crust:
1/4 cup unsalted, room temperature butter (1/4 stick)
1/2 tablespoon light-brown sugar
Pinch of salt


For the filling:
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon light-brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt 
1/2 cup melted, unsalted butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 egg yolks plus 1 whole egg


Confectioners' sugar, for dusting 


What to do with it all...

• First make the cookie - preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Combine all the ingredients for the cookie and mix until well blended
• Spread mixture on a greased cookie sheet (you can also line the cookie sheet w/parchment instead)
• Bake cookie for 12 - 15 mins, or until golden

• Let cool enough to handle then crumble into a large bowl and add the crust ingredients and combine well
• Press crust into 10 inch pie pan, bottom and sides, and set aside

• To make the filling - reduce oven to 325 degrees
• Combine filling ingredients in a large bowl and whisk until smooth

• Pour into pie crust and bake for 15 minutes, or until somewhat set
• Reduce oven temperature again to 315 and bake until the top is browned
  
• Remove from oven and cool slightly
• Refrigerate for at least 30 mins and dust with confectioner's sugar before serving

Four of the best (and whimsical) hors d'oeuvres for a new year...

So I've been thinking about this blog a lot... though you probably wouldn't realize it since I haven't really been posting as much as I should (bad, bad Mae!).  I promise I haven't forgotten about you all, quite the contrary - with a fresh year/decade coming up, I've been busy thinking about how to make a *New and Improved!* version of the site.  I'm happy to say I think I've come up with some nifty-ish ideas (I think, kinda, maybe), and you'll just have to stick around to see what I mean by that (muahaha!).

Until then, I thought maybe I'd end this year on a classy note... and what's classier than olive penguins and cheese snowmen, I ask you?  Here's my evidence to back this up:

a) Penguins wear tuxes, all day, every day.  That's more than even James Bond can say.
b) Snowmen wear TOP HATS.  Just like British people.  'Nuff said.

As for the other hors d'oeuvres on this menu, I'd say they're pretty and elegant, too.  But the most important part of all of these for me is the whimsical part.  If there's something more whimsical than miniature versions of food, I've yet to find it.  I worried these might cross the line from "whimsy" into "precious", which is the difference between, say...

Whimsical                                                    Precious (icky/cutesy)

... I'm not even going to go into why this little fella on the right appears to be drinking a beer larger than his torso - as if hauling those freak-huge parsnips he's got wouldn't be hard enough sober for a six-year-old.

In any case, as Jason gave these the thumbs up on my hors d'oeuvres (boys generally being the best alarmists for anything too "cutesy"), I think I'm in the clear by most standards as far as the "precious" quotient goes.  Rock on.

For the next four weeks I'll be featuring one recipe a week for these whimsical hors d'oeuvres in honor of the first month of the new decade!  Why not all at once?  Well, I have to have something to persuade you to come back and visit me over and over again, don't I?  And if you're thinking "That's lame, I'm have a NYE party tomorrow that I could use recipes for!"  Yes, this might be true, so I'll give you the gist (spoiler alerts?) for the other 3 hors d'oeuvres so you can make them if you're dying to do so tomorrow... plus you could always email me at the "Contact" tab for it.  I love getting emails.  Really, I do.

So, here is 1 of the 4 recipes for classy/whimsical-but-not-precious (and did I mention vegetarian, inexpensive and easy?) hors d'oeuvres...

Recipe numero uno: The Winter Penguins and Snowmen (make delicious armies to command at will!)

The penguin recipe can be found all over the web - I haven't been able to figure out where it's orginated from.  If you're the mastermind of this recipe (and can prove it) and reading this getting pissed that I'm reproducing it... well, I'm guessing you're pretty busy being pissed at a lot of people cause this thing is as popular as the snickerdoodle.  Feel free to send me a note, though, and I'll happily credit you for this awesome invention.  I HAVE changed it up from the versions I've found, I'd like to note, in that I used canned pickled spicy carrots instead of chopping up fresh ones.  Why?

a) They're uniform and pre-cut for my ease and comfort (yay!)
b) They're spicy, and I like spicy - I think they make these *pop* a little more then plain raw carrots - especially since California black olives and cream cheese aren't very "pop-y" on their own, though delish.

For the Penguins you'll need...

A can of medium California black olives
A can of large California black olives
An 8 oz pkg of cream cheese (feel free to flavor w/herbs, garlic, whatever)
A can (11 oz works) of spicy carrot coins
Toothpicks (for stabbing)

Simply slice one side of the large olive lengthwise and fill with cream cheese (you'll probably want to clean up the cheese smears with a damn paper towel).  Cut a little triangle pie shape out of a carrot coin and insert into hole of medium olive for the beak.  Then layer as shown and skewer that little puppy with a toothpick.  The horror!

<-- Still classy, even without a head)

Penguin face-off!

Now, for the snowmen, this is an idea I had myself, but it does seem like a couple other people like me (raised only children, too much time left alone with food) have had similar ideas to mine on this, though I've yet to see an exact replica when I Google'd my creation.  What can I say?  Great minds... or something to that effect.

For the snowmen you'll need...

Small fresh mozzarella "pearls" (available in tubs in many places)

OR

Substitute cream or goat cheese rolled into balls (again, feel free to flavor at will)

Sliced seedless (English) cucumbers - not too thin as these will serve as a base for your snowmen

Whole roasted red peppers - sliced into long, thin strips

A can of medium California black olives

A can of large California black olives

Just cut as pictured below (for the top hat, you're just cutting off the very ends of the olives to make a cylinder shape) and assemble.  Don't forget the toothpicks!

Coming up next week: Tomato bisque shots with mini grilled cheese

Followed by: Quails eggs and olive oil blinis (aka Mini Pancakes and Eggs)

To be concluded with: Thai sweet potato cups

If you've enjoyed my recipes, please vote for my Vietnamese-style Moo Shu at Foodista!  :)

Ruby pasta - cooked with beets and wine!

I recently thought I'd see what it took to make some truly bright-red pasta out of your standard box of semolina shells.  Having some fresh beets on hand, I thought I'd boil them (scrubbed very well) and save the juice to cook my pasta in.  Since I'd recently seen Rachael Ray make spaghettini cooked in red wine on Iron Chef, I thought I'd supplement the beet juice with a cup of Cabernet.

Underwhelming pasta boiled in beet juice and red wine

I wasn't really expecting the results to be exactly what I was looking for... which is good because what came out into the bowl was a mass of slightly anemic purple pasta.  The wine had given a little flavor to the shells, which is nice, but the color was still off the mark. 

 Now THAT'S more like it!

The solution?  Cut up the freshly boiled beets and toss them with the still-hot pasta.  Viola!  Bright red pasta!  I tossed it with some olive oil to enhance the color with a rich sheen - then added roasted asparagus tips, garlic, salt/pepper and a squeeze of lemon!  So pretty, surprisingly easy... and oh so YUM! 

I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried cooking pasta in wine or beets (or both!)... or just any unconventional pasta-cooking wisdom!

PS - Yes, I took these pictures on the snow-covered picnic table in the backyard of my building... SO COLD, and yes, I looked insane to my neighbors.  Yay!