Tag Archives: pie

My favorite pie crusts involve crumbling cookies

Momofuku Milk Bar Crack Pie @ ButterscotchSundae.com

Because I am on Pinterest and Pinterest loves an ooey-gooey pie, I have been aware for some time that something called “Crack Pie” exists. It’s served at Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC for $5.25 a slice or $44 for a whole pie. Forty-four dollars! That’s a lot of dough.

Cost aside, the last time I was in New York was something like 25 years ago, and I probably won’t be going back anytime soon. So I was intrigued to see that the much-heralded Crack Pie was one of the three options for this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge. The other two were a chocolate and caramel tart and a crostata, both of which sounded great but neither or which had “crack” in the name. And they also looked like the pastry/crust would be harder to make, and I’m kind of scared of pastry-making. So in retrospect I guess I didn’t exactly nail the “challenge” portion of this challenge, did I? I did make a creamy blueberry pie this month, but I bought the pastry for that. I also played a lot of Candy Crush Saga this month. So there’s that.

Anyway, back to the crack.

The Crack Pie recipe looks pretty long and involved, but it isn’t difficult at all. You start by making a giant oatmeal cookie, which you then crumble completely and turn into your crust. That’s the most involved part; after that, it’s just mixing a few things together and baking it.

It’s a very rich pie, so make sure you have a glass of milk on hand when you’re ready to try it. I’m not sure it really earns the “crack” rating — I haven’t had an overwhelming desire to make another one, and I’m pretty sure when they called it that they didn’t mean that the top of it might crack even though that’s what I told Poppy when she asked — but it is pretty tasty.

 

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FYI: This is how many apples are in a bushel

Bushel

I do not know how many might be in a peck. I do know I am up to my eyeballs in apples. We’ve made two pies, I’m making apple butter, and I foisted some off on my mother-in-law for applesaucing. The first pie was the standard toss-sugar-and-apples, put-in-a-crust-and-bake scenario. The second, though, called for a carmelly, syrupy concoction that’s poured over the apples. I didn’t follow the original recipe to a T, but it was still delicious. Here’s what I did:

Caramel Apple Pie
applepiePie crust for double-crust pie (I usually use Pillsbury, but this time it was store brand.)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg white
6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Place the bottom crust in a pie plate. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Gently pour the caramel mixture over the apples. Top with second crust; crimp edges and cut a few slits in the top. Brush top crust with egg white and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon white sugar.

Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking for 45 minutes or until apples are soft.

So, what’s your favorite apple application?

Apples, apples everywhere

We took Poppy out to a local “U-Pick” apple orchard today. Only we found out when we got there that it wasn’t so much “U-Pick” off the tree as “U-Pick” out of a giant box of apples. Poppy had fun anyway, though. Rockford dangled her into the giant apple crate and let her pick out her very own “sweet little apples.” She hasn’t deigned to bite into one yet, but she spend all afternoon hugging one.

The orchard is on a farm, complete with horses, sheep and pigs. I’m glad that Poppy’s introduction to real, live pigs was in “darlin’ little piggy” format rather than giant, hulking hog format. The piglets were pretty adorable, particularly the little brown fella. The sheep were a little stand-offish, but the horses wandered right over to us. Poppy was impressed, but she didn’t want to touch them. I can’t blame her. They were enormous.

You’d be able to see all that for yourselves if my camera’s battery hadn’t been dead. For now, though, you’ll just have to trust me. Cute pigs. Shy sheep. Giant horses. We may go back in a few weeks with a functional camera. Let’s hope the piggies aren’t pork chops by then.

We came home with far more apples than we needed, even though we filled the second-to-smallest bag they offered. We have an apple pie in the oven, and Rockford is planning to make an apple cake later tonight or maybe tomorrow. We’ll probably still have some left over. I’m thinking apple sauce.

Apple Crumb Pie


1 9-inch pie shell
8 cups thinly sliced apples
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place sliced apples in a large bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice if desired. In a small bowl, mix together white sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sprinkle mixture over apples. Toss until apples are evenly coated. Spoon mixture into pie shell.

In a small bowl mix together 1/2 cup flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter or margarine until mixture is crumbly. Refrigerate.

Bake pie in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over apple filling. Bake pie an additional 25 to 30 minutes, until top is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Adapted from AllRecipes.com.