There are some things in life that make you curious. Like when a pastry chef says that her caramel pie is so good that it makes people addictive. She called it Crack Pie, and I thought ‘What an interesting name for a pie’, but mostly I was soooo curious if it was as good as everyone said. Actually, I experience this a lot when watching food TV (my favourite kind of TV)! And when I see Jamie Oliver throwing some ingredients onto a wooden board and doing his magic, I’m totally hooked because I want to know what it tastes like. Do you know this kind of curiosity? Let’s call it food curiosity, and that’s the reason why I baked this caramel pie.
Actually, baking has never been my strength as I’m often too lazy to follow the recipe in an exact manner. I just like to improvise, which is a good thing with cooking but a bad idea with baking. However, since I was able to afford my KitchenAid, I am practically forced to bake more, as you might have noticed in my recipes. So when I watched one of my favourite food shows, ‘Chef’s Table’ I came across Christina Tosi and, I just had to try her caramel pie. Ahem, Crack Pie.
The Recipe
You need:
For the cookie:
- 85 g soft butter
- 50 g brown sugar
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1 large egg
- 80 g oatmeal
- 65 g flour
- 1/8 tsp. baking powder
- 1/8 tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. salt
For the cookie crust:
- 45 g soft butter
- 20 g brown sugar
For the filling:
- 150 g sugar
- 110 g brown sugar
- 1 tsp. dry milk powder
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 120 g melted butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 200 g cream
- 4 large egg yolks
- Powdered sugar to dredge
First things first! Preheat the oven to 175°C. Then prepare a baking pan with some parchment paper and grease the sides. At that make sure that the parchment paper overlaps the pan, so you can easily remove the cookie.
Time to make the crust of your caramel pie! First, mix the butter with the white and brown sugar in a large bowl and beat until creamy. Now add the egg and beat at high intensity until everything is light and fluffy. Next, add the oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda and salt and beat for about a minute. Then fill the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth it down. Bake for 16-18 minutes until golden brown, then let it cool completely.
In the meantime, prepare a springform pan or pie pan with some parchment paper. When the cookie is cooled down, crumble it into a large bowl and mix it with the butter and sugar. Grind it with your fingers until it becomes slightly sticky. Then fill it into the pan and press to the bottom and the sides to form the crust.
Now for the filling! First, preheat the oven to 175°C again. Then mix white and brown sugar, dry milk powder and salt in a large bowl. Add melted butter and vanilla extract and mix well. Then add the cream and egg yolks and keep on stirring until you have a homogenous mixture. Now fill the filling onto your prepared crust.
Bake the caramel pie for 30 minutes, then decrease the temperature to 160°C and keep on baking for another 20 minutes. Now the filling should be beautifully brown and set around the edges. Take it out of the oven and let the caramel pie cool for at least 2 hours. Then put it in your fridge overnight and decorate it with powdered sugar the next day. Enjoy!
Maaaaan, what a pie! What a rich, sweet and flavourful pie experience, and sooo heavy I could not eat more than one piece. Well, I knew that Americans like it sweet, but I was seriously not prepared for this. Everyone just loved it, and I think I might have made my boyfriend’s colleagues addicted to this….no wonder they called it Crack Pie at Momofuku! Now I definitely want to taste the original to see if I came any close. Time to go to New York!
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