Momofuku Crack Pie

Midway through my first slice, I said, "It's nice, but is it really all it's cracked up to be?" Then, when I realised what I'd actually said, "oh, shi-"

"Are you gonna put that on your blog?" Robert said.

So.

I made this on request for Michelle, who saw the recipe on Almost Bourdain. The 'crack pie' - so-called because it's just as addictive - by NYC's Momofuku Milk Bar is apparently a sensation, and according to their website sells for US $44 per pie or US $5.25 per slice. Which sounds HUGE until you think about it, because that's really just a little more than the price of a nice cake at David Jones Food Hall, isn't it?

It was fun to make, and fun to eat, and even if it wasn't quite crack we still finished it all off in one sitting. But since thinking about the amount of butter that went into it is making me feel a bit ill (it could totally be reduced, I think), I am never going to make it again. <-- I reserve the right to renege this if you want to shell out $44.

 

Momofuku Milk Bar's Crack Pie

Servings: Makes 2 pies (6 to 8 servings each)


COOKIE FOR CRUST

2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (3 ounces) flour
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick = 113 g) softened butter
1/3 cup (2 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar
3 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) sugar
1 egg
Scant 1 cup (3 1/2 ounces) rolled oats


Heat the oven to 375 F (190 C) 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 the butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy.

Whisk the egg into the butter mixture until fully incorporated.

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

Spread the mixture onto a 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.

Though called a cookie, the texture of mine was more like a muffin.


CRUST

Crumbled cookie for crust
1/4 cup (1/2 stick = 56 g) butter
1 1/2 tablespoons (3/4 ounce) brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon 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).

Or, if you're like me, combine by hand. Use your fingertips rather than palms to avoid melting the butter too much.

Divide the crust between 2 (10-inch) pie tins. Like Almost Bourdain, I used one round tart pan and one rectangular tart pan.

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 ounces) sugar
3/4 cup plus a scant 3 tablespoons (7 ounces) light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon (3/4 ounce) milk powder*
1 cup (2 sticks = 226g) butter, melted
3/4 cup plus a scant 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 egg yolks
2 prepared crusts
Powdered sugar, garnish


* Milk powder, you may or may not be surprised to find, is not sold in your local Coles in packets of less than 1kg. Since I didn't anticipate needing to use milk powder again in the near future, I skipped this ingredient. Reasoning that it was included for texture more than flavour, I subbed in a tablespoon of corn starch. Did I do wrong? Is this why I found the pie merely nice, instead of crack-like in addictive quality? You tell me.


Heat the oven to 350 F (176 C).

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 the filling evenly between the 2 prepared pie shells. My filling had a texture like pureed fruit and was very easy to spread into the shells with a spatula.

Bake the pies, one at a time, for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325 F (162 C) 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.

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.


From Almost Bourdain

Nanaimo Bars aka Caramel Slice

Last Thursday was Canada Day - one of my friends organised a surprise party on the Saturday for her Canadian husband, and we all celebrated by bringing along and then consuming vast quantities of food. There was a moose-mousse cake, maple bacon cookies, Canadian Dry ginger ale, turkey sandwiches, salmon bagels, pumpkin pie, and so much more.

My contribution was the Nanaimo Bar. Allegedly a Canadian specialty, I suspect it is nothing more or less than a good old Ausssie caramel slice!



The traditional recipe calls for Graham Wafers which are not sold in Australia or most places outside North America. The original recipe has instructions on making these from scratch. Being too lazy to do the same, I followed the lead of cooks around the world and used a local substitute, which I crushed to crumbs in a sealed plastic bag with a rolling pin.

Digestive biscuits of any kind are fine; I used Arnotts Granita, which has a marginally lower sugar content and a rougher texture than similar biscuits like the Milk Arrowroot. Some blogs have also suggested it's possible to use half tea sweet biscuit or digestive, and half a salty biscuit or even pretzels - given how strong and sweet the caramel layer is, I think a half salty mix would work really well.


Base:
115gram unsalted butter
50gram granulated sugar
75ml unsweetened cocoa
1 large egg, beaten
200gram Graham Wafer crumbs (see above)
1/2 cup almonds (any type, finely chopped)
1 cup dessicated coconut

Caramel:
2 cans condensed milk (about 800 ml)
30 gram unsalted butter
3 tbsp golden syrup

Topping:
150 gram semi-sweet chocolate (I used 85% Lindt and it was awesome)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter


BASE: Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Celsius fan-forced). Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned and slightly risen. Remove it from oven and let it cool.


CARAMEL: Place butter and golden syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When butter has melted, add condensed milk. Stir constantly over medium heat for about 9-12 minutes, until caramel thickens. Gently spread caramel evenly over base. Return to oven for a further 10-12 minutes (a 1/2cm border of lightly browned caramel should form around the edges of the slice).

This was the absolute messiest step by far - condensed milk is NOT a nice texture to work with and the whole kitchen was just sticky and sickly-sweet smelling, ugh. Also, I tried to be smart and used maple syrup instead of golden syrup. This turned out to be a fail because the maple crystallised instead of blending! I had to sieve the hard bits out before I could pour the caramel on to the base, which of course didn't help with the messiness...


TOPPING: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

Consider scoring the chocolate when it's semi-solid to enable easier cutting later. I didn't, and mine cracked all over the place!

Use a hot, dry knife to cut the slice - fill a tall glass with hot water, dip knife in water for a few seconds, and wipe dry with a clean tea towel.


From A table for two

Pumpkin polenta muffins

I had the most delicious ham and zucchini polenta muffin at Patisse in Waterloo on the weekend. And one chocolate and one passionfruit macaron. And a coffee. Mmmm...

I'm getting distracted. My point is their polenta muffin was awesome and I wanted to try making some too. Mine wasn't as tasty, I'm afraid, but it's not bad, and it looks nice, and I eated it.


Pumpkin polenta muffins

Olive oil, to grease
190g (1 1/4 cups) self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
90g (1/2 cup) polenta
2 eggs, lightly whisked
185ml (3/4 cup) milk
60g butter, melted
40g (1/2 cup) coarsely grated cheddar
180g (2/3 cup) cooked, mashed pumpkin
1 small red capsicum, finely chopped
270g can corn kernels, drained


Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease and line muffin tin. (This is where I went a little wrong, by the way. I used a nonstick muffin tin and assumed it wouldn't stick. Surprise! It did. The muffins were okay, but some were a bit wrecked at the base. Next time I'm using muffin liners.)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and polenta into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.

Use a fork to whisk together the egg, milk and butter in a second large bowl. Stir in the cheddar, pumpkin, capsicum and corn.

Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

Spoon mixture into tins and smooth the surface. Bake in oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Set aside in pan for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 12 muffins.


Adapted from Taste

Apple and Pecan Cake

I made this cake using my NEW STAND MIXER. :DDD

It's a birthday gift from my awesome friends and I can't waaaait to take the dough hook on a test run. I hope this will result in bread for all! Loaves in your face!

It was so fun using this for the first time and this was a good recipe to try it out on. Creaming the butter and sugar was a cinch, and this stiff batter would have been a pain to mix by hand.

In short, I approve.



Apple pecan coffee cake with cinnamon sugar topping

Like Technicolor Kitchen before me, I halved the ingredients and baked the cake in a 20cm tin with a removable base. Overall it came out a bit heavier than I expected, and I think I overdid the brown sugar.

Pecans:
1 cup (110g) pecans, coarsely chopped
2 ½ tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, slightly softened

Cake:
3 ½ cups peeled, cored and diced (1/3in) apples
1/3 cup (58g) packed light brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups (420g) all purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
generous ½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks/226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2/3 cup (174g) plain yogurt
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Topping:
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F and prepare a baking tin.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. In a medium bowl, stir together the pecans, brown sugar, corn syrup and butter until the pecans are coated. Spread the pecan mixture on the foil liked sheet and toast, stirring occasionally, for 9 to 14 minutes or until nicely browned. Let cool completely then chop into ¼ in bits – the pecans will keep, stored airtight, at room temperature for several days.

In a large bowl thoroughly stir together the apples, brown sugar and cinnamon. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl with a mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and granulated sugar until lightened and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes.

On low speed, beat in half the dry ingredients just until thoroughly incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the yogurt and vanilla, beating just until evenly incorporated. Beating on low, add the remaining dry ingredients, then beat in medium speed until evenly blended – batter will be stiff.

Spoon half the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly to the edges with a buttered palette knife, the layer will be thin. Using a slotted spoon and shaking off any excess juice, distribute the apple mixture over the batter. Sprinkle with the pecans then spoon the remaining batter over the apples and pecans, spreading it to the edges – the batter will seem skimpy. Mix the topping ingredients in a small bowl and sprinkle over the cake.

Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the top is well browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.

The cake will keep, stored airtight in a cool place, for up to 2 days, or refrigerated for 2-3 days or longer – let it come to room temperature before serving.


From Technicolor Kitchen

Moroccan Fish Stew

Not sure exactly how Morrocan this really is, but it's tasty and easy. I find myself liking Bill Granger against my will...

Moroccan Fish Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 cinnamon stick
pinch cayenne pepper (I cheated and skipped this)
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
pinch of salt
500g firm white fish fillets cut into chunks (I used ling; cod or snapper works too)
400g tin chickpeas, rinsed
2 teaspoons honey
freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
fresh coriander
flaked almonds, lightly toasted


Heat the olive oil in a large heavy based pan over medium to low heat. Cook onion, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent.

Add garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric and cinnamon and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until fragrant.

Add cayenne pepper, tomatoes, salt and 250ml (1 cup) water. Cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.

Add the fish and simmer until fish is tender, about 5 minutes.

Add chickpeas and honey, cook for a further 2-3 minutes and season to taste.

Serve garnished with coriander or flaked almonds. I like having this with some coucous on the side.


From Bill Granger's Every Day