So there’s a dessert place in New York City called Momofuku Milk bar. They make this concoction they call ‘crack pie’ because of how nuts people go for it. It costs $44 per pie and is made with an assortment of expensive, rich and sometimes hard to find ingredients. (Who has freeze dried corn powder in their pantry? Certainly not me.)
And the instructions are certainly not any easier. You have to make cookies from scratch, let them cool then bash them up to make the crust. Then you have to make the custard filling from scratch, including separating EIGHT eggs. Then you bake the whole thing and chill it.
To which I said:
But I kept on seeing this recipe on Pinterest, taunting me. It looked so good but the cost and the million steps kept me from making it till finally I decided there had to be a cheater way that would still taste pretty darn good.
And so I made it. And it was damn good. Crunchy oatmeal crust with a creamy custardy filling with a hint of butterscotch from the brown sugar. I have no idea if it compares to the real thing since I’ve never had it so I cannot vouch for its authenticity, but if I do say so myself, it was crack-tacular.
Easy Crack Pie
For the crust:
1 package store-bought crunchy oatmeal cookies (I used PC brand)
1/4 cup butter, melted
5 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
For the filling:
4 cups milk + 2-3 tablespoons (I used 1% but it would be nice and rich with whole milk)
8 tablespoons brown sugar
9 tablespoons Bird’s or Harry Horne’s custard powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
powdered sugar for dusting
Preheat your oven to 350F.
In the food processor, add about 12 cookies and pulse until they’re broken up. Add the brown sugar, salt and butter until the mixture starts to come together a bit. The mixture is ready when you press some to the side of the food processor bowl and it stays. You may have to add a bit more or less butter depending on how moist the cookies you bought were.
Press the crust into the bottom of a 9″ glass pie pan and set aside.
Bring the milk and brown sugar to a gentle boil in a large saucepan on the stove. Dissolve the custard powder in a bit of cold milk and whisk into the boiling milk. Continue to whisk on the heat for about a minute or until the custard begins to get nice and thick. Add the vanilla and whisk to combine.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Continue to whisk every so often as it cools.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 350 for 15 minutes. At that point, open the door, turn the oven down to 325 and allow the oven to cool down to 325 before closing the door and cooking for another 5 minutes.
At this point the custard should be starting to brown very slightly and become less giggly. If you still think it’s not set enough, you can bake for another 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool at room temperature or in the fridge.
Dust with powdered sugar right before serving.
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