Crack Pie

 

A friend of mine at work turned me onto this thing called Crack Pie.  A Pie made at Momofuku's Bakery and Milk Bar in Manhattan.  You can order them and have them shipped to your home for a whopping $44 plus shipping, or you can just make your own. There is a reason it's called Crack Pie, they're over the top good and a very addictive.  Here's the recipe if you dare to make one:

Cookie for crust:

2/3 cup plus 1 tbsp (3oz) flour

Scant 1/8 tsp baking powder

Scant 1/8 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick ) softened butter

1/3 cup ( 2 1/2 oz) light brown sugar

3 tbsp ( 1 1/4 oz ) sugar

1 egg

Scant 1 cup (3 1/2 oz) rolled oats

Heat oven to 375 degrees

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat teh butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy.

Whisk the egg into the butter mixture until fully incorporated

Whit the mixer running, beat in the flour mixture, a little at a time, until fully combined.  Stir in the oats until incorporated.

Spread teh mixture onto a 9 x 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. 

Crust

1 recipe crumbled cookie, above

1/4 cup (half stick) butter

1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar (3/4 oz)

1/8 tsp 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. 

Filling

1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 oz) sugar

3/4 cup plus a scant 3 tbsp (7 oz) light brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup plus 1 tsp (3/4 oz) milk powder

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted

3/4 cup plus a scant 2 tbsp heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

8 egg yolks

2 prepared crusts 

powdered sugar, garnish

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.  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.

Gently whisk in the egg yolks, being careful not to add too much air

Divide teh filling evenly between the 2 prepared pie shells

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.  Remoe the pies and cool on a rack.

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 (very unnecessary

in my opinion and the pie is good slightly warm - not just good, but orgasmic kind of good.)

OK!  Enjoy your Crack! 

Lime Semifreddo with berries

Once again I bought a Bon Appetite Magazine that I do not need, but I have an addiction to them. As I thumbed through it I spotted a wonderful looking desert called meyer lemon semifreddo with summer berries. Well, I didn't have any meyer lemons, and I didn't have all of those berries, but I did have a bunch of whipping cream I needed to use up, lots of eggs from our chickens a few strawberries from the local strawberry farmer and a few blueberries from the market and a whole wad of limes that my husband bought, and I wasn't sure what I was suppose to do with. Ding Ding Ding! That's it, make this desert with limes! If it's good with lemons, it will be good with limes right? Boy! was I right!
Here's what it looked like, almost straight out of the freezer. I couldn't get a picture of it before half of it was gone.
And this is what a single serving looked like served up with berries:
You can find the meyer lemon version of this recipe in June 2008 Bon Appetite magazine, or you can probably pull it up on www.bonappetite.com or www.epicurious.com

My version used about a 1/2 cup of slivered almonds (sliced would be better, like the original recipe calls for, I was just working with what I had)
1 3/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
1 1/4 cups plus 2 tbsp sugar
7 egg yolks
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1 tbsp plus 2 tsp grated lime peel ( went light on this, as lime zest can be more bitter then lemon zest.)
1/4 tsp salt
4 cups strawberries and blue berries, and a few raspberries I had left before my daughter ate them all.

Line a 9x5x3 loaf pan with plastic wrap and leave a generous overlap. Sprinkle the almonds over the bottom. Beat whipping cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form and refrigerate while making custard.

Whisk 1 1/4 cups sugar, egg yolks, lime juice, lime zest and salt in a large metal bowl until blended. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture is thick and fluffy. It should read 170 degrees with an insta read thermometer. This should take about 4 minutes. Remove from simmering water and beat until cool, thick and doubled in volume with an electric mixer (6 minutes). Fold in the chilled whipped cream. Put the mixture in the loaf pan, smooth the top and tap lightly to get rid of air bubbles. Fold the plastic over the top to cover. Freeze until firm (8 hours or overnight).

Mix the berries with 2 tbsp of sugar.

Unfold the plasticwrap and invert onto a platter; remove plastic wrap. Slice with a knife that has been dipped in hot water; cut crosswise into 1" slices, place on a plate and spoon berries over. Eat and enjoy!!!!