Momofuku Crack Pie

This pie was nominated best pie in New York City in 2009, which is when I ran across it at pieloveyou and thought certainly I will have to make this pie for myself. How could you not make something called a crack pie if you are living in San Francisco? I mean really? Except that it requires that you first make cookies, and then crust, and then pie... and you know that all is too much even if your name is Momofuku. I put it off and put it off and put it off until finally in a bit of residency whatnot stress-relief I needed to be heroic in my pie making and vowed to make it. I only made half the recipe for the cookie and the pie, which I will record here, but the original recipe makes two pies. This pie is actually as delicious as people make it out to be-- I would call it salted caramel in a pie more than a pie-- and worth the effort but very rich. Don't bother whipping cream or getting icecream to serve with it, it packs all the punches on it's own!

Originally printed in the LATimes but comes to me from PieLoveYou:

http://pieloveyou.blogspot.com/2010/05/momofuku-crack-pie-22.html

Ingredients for the cookie:

1/3 C. all-purpose flour

1/16 tsp. baking powder

1/16 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. salt

1/4 C. softened butter

1/6 C. light brown sugar

1 1/2 T. white sugar

1/2 beaten egg

1/2 C. rolled oats

 

Directions for the cookie:

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

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

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

4. Whisk the egg into the butter mixture until fully incorporated.

5. Stir in the flour mixture, a little at a time, until fully combined. Stir in the oats until incorporated.

6. Spread the mixture onto a 9-inch-by-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.

 

Ingredients for the crust:

1 crumbled cookie recipe

2 T. butter

2 tsp. brown sugar

1/16 tsp. salt

 

Directions for the crust:

1. 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). 

2. Press the crust into a 10" pie plate to form an even layer along the bottom and sides. Set the prepared crust aside while you prepare the filling.

Ingredients for the filling:

3/4 C. sugar

1/2 C. light brown sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1/6 C. milk powder

1/2 C. butter, melted

1/2 C. heavy cream

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

4 egg yolks

 

Directions for filling and pie assembly:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. 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.

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

4. Scoop the filling into the prepared pie crust gently.

5. Bake the pie at 350F for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the filling is slightly jiggly and golden brown (similar to a pecan pie), about 10 minutes. Remove the pies and cool on a rack.

6. Refrigerate the cooled pie until well chilled. Serve the pie cold.  

Cinnamon Rolls

When you ask someone in my family how to make one of the classic recipes, and then you ask someone else in the same family how to make the same recipe, you are sure to get a few different answers. Sometimes the same person doesn't always tell you the same way. So you just have to make things up a little as you go along.

When I wanted to make cinnamon rolls I went to two different sources for information and quantities and what not and I present to you the amalgam of everything that has best worked for me. These cinnamon rolls, however you do them, are delicious. Just ask the Robber, who ate ten of them in under 24 hours. :)

The roll base is the same that I use for dinner rolls and can be found previously on this blog here: http://vegetabletuesdays.blogspot.com/2010/12/dinner-rolls.html

Ingredients:

For 2 dozen rolls (you can also make one dozen rolls and one dozen cinnamon rolls):

2 3/4 c warm water

6 T sugar (optional: add 2-4 T. more for sweeter dough)

2 T yeast

3 t salt

1 c dry milk powder

1/2-3/4 c yellow shortening (or vegetable oil)

2 eggs

~9 c white bread flour

For filling for 2 dozen rolls (modest amount first, extravagant second. I like being extravagant):

1/2 - 2/3 C. brown sugar

1 - 1 1/3 C. granulated sugar

2 - 3 1/3 T. butter

4 - 5 T. cinnamon

For glaze for 2 dozen rolls:

3.5 T. butter

4.5 C. powdered sugar

1.5 tsp. vanilla

5-7 T. warm water added 1 T. at a time

For filling mix, of which you can make a lot of and then use 2/3 - 1 C. per dozen rolls instead of making filling everytime:

2 C. brown sugar

4 C. sugar

1/4 lbs butter (1 stick)

1 C. cinnamon

Directions:

1. Pour water over sugar in large bowl. Dissolve yeast and let stand, uninterrupted. When foamy, add milk.

2. Alternate 1/2 C. additions of flour with salt, eggs, fat and stir until all flour added to bowl.

3. Knead 10 minutes with additional flour. Allow to rise, covered in a warm place, until volume of dough has doubled.

4. Make filling by combining ingredients and using pastry cutter or fork to cut in the butter.

4. Punch down. Divide dough in half. Roll each half out into a large rectangle and add desired amount of filling. Roll the rectangle into a log and cut into twelve rolls. Place rolls on baking sheet or in 9 x 13 pan and allow to rise until doubled again.

5. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool. When cooled, frost with glaze. (Glaze is easy to make, you can melt the butter before adding it if you like for a smoother glaze.) Rolls can be microwaved again for 30 seconds to re-warm and stored in plastic airtight bags for a few days.

Green Mashed Potatoes

My final NYTimes recipe for the Easter season, but one well worth posting as I actually really enjoyed this one. The mashed potatoes turned out so pretty and green! And so delicious! I did make some minor (major?) changes to the recipe, Mark Bittman would be so proud! Instead of using one whole pound of greens (a whole pound! so many greens!) and boiling them, I used 6 oz. of fresh spinach and chopped it up finely, and then added it uncooked to the hot potatoes before I mashed them, so that the spinach softened a little bit in the hot potatoes. I used double the amount of potatoes (three large, three smaller) for that amount of spinach, and added butter and some milk powder to the potatoes instead of the olive oil recommended by Mr. Bittman. I did use seasoned bread crumbs, and baked the potatoes in a pie plate, but I found that the bread crumbs were not to my taste although I could see how others might like them. If I make these again, I would either not add the crumbs, or I would serve it with croutons or top it with larger crumbs so the final result is not as gritty feeling in the mouth. Also, if I did use bread crumbs, I would be tempted to mix them separately with olive oil and then spread them over the top, so as to more evenly distribute the oil across the crumbs.

Overall I think the idea of adding greens to the potatoes, no matter how you do it, is quite nice and might as well be done if you have the little bit of extra time.

Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/dining/111mrex.html

Ingredients:

2 large starchy or all-purpose potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and cut into quarters

Salt

1 pound dandelion or other greens, washed and trimmed of thick stems

1/4 to 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup homemade bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Put potatoes in a large, deep pot and cover them with cold water. Add a large pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Cook until soft but not falling apart, 15 to 30 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain; meanwhile, add greens to water and cook for about 1 minute. Rinse under cold water. Drain well, then chop.

2. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Rice potatoes, run them through a food mill, or mash them with a fork or potato masher, adding enough olive oil to moisten them well. Mash in the greens, adding more olive oil as needed. Sprinkle with salt and lots of pepper.

3. Put mixture in an ovenproof dish and top with bread crumbs. Drizzle with more olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake until bread crumbs are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve hot or warm.

Yield: 4 servings.

Dinner Rolls

Mom's roll recipe: the best! When I make this recipe I usually halve it and make 2 dozen rolls out of it, but the original recipe will make 2-4 dozen rolls depending on how big you want them to be.

Ingredients:

2 3/4 c warm water
6 T sugar
2 T yeast
3 t salt
1 c dry milk powder
1/2-3/4 c yellow shortening (or vegetable oil)
2 eggs
~9 c white bread flour

Directions:

1. Pour water over sugar. Dissolve yeast. When foamy, add milk.

2. Alternate 1/2 c additions of flour with salt, eggs, fat and stir.

3. Knead 10 minutes with additional flour. Double. Punch, form into rolls and let rise on baking pans/dish until doubled again.

4. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Can put melted shortening on the tops of rolls to make them shiny while still hot.

Mashed Potatoes

This is how to do it, Mom says.

Select your potatoes according to the number of eaters-- one potato per eater. Peel, wash, and cut them in quarter (or smaller) pieces. Cover them with salted water. Boil them for 25 minutes. Adjust the time depending on your altitude. While they boil put in a bowl (here's where you can get creative): salt, pepper, powdered milk, butter, and a little paprika for color. Pour the water off, saving a little in a cup. Put them in the bowl. Beat them up with the beaters and add a little extra water if you need to.

Mom's Homemade Pizza

Even better than the biscuits, this sent Robber off into his own kind of Robber-land. On my pizza I had pepperoni and pepper and onion, but Robber had pepperoni and pepper and onion and ham and pineapple and mushroom and everything. He was so happy. He raved on and on about the crust. I guess we'll be doing this one again...

To make 2 14-inch pizzas:

Ingredients (crust):

1 T. sugar
1 T. yeast
1 C. very warm water
1/4 powdered milk
2 eggs
3 C. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 T. olive oil

(Can also make a simpler dough just using flour, salt, yeast, water, oil)

Directions:

1) Pour water over sugar. Dissolve yeast. When foamy, add milk. Alternate 1/2 c additions of flour with salt, eggs, fat. Knead 10 minutes. Allow to rise until dough has doubled. At this point you can punch it down and put it in the fridge overnight to use the next day or move forward.

2) Divide the dough in two and pat it out into greased 14-inch pizza pans. Brush them with olive oil and sprinkle them with parmesan cheese.

3) Put the pizzas in an oven preheated to 400F. Bake them for 10 minutes, switching their positions halfway through. During that time, mix:

8 oz can tomato sauce
salt
pepper
herbs of your choice: Mom uses thyme, oregano (sometimes marjoram instead), basil, and sometimes parsley.

4) When the crusts are out, spread the sauce evenly over the two of them. Sprinkle on grated cheese (1 pound of mozzerella, 1/4 pound cheddar, mixed). Put on pepperonis or peppers and onions or whatnot.

5) Put them back in the oven for about 15 minutes. Switch their positions halfway through. Remove and eat after they have cooled just a little bit!