If you haven’t heard of Crack Pie, crawl out from under the rock you’ve been hiding under and Google the shit. I mean, this fucking thing is trademarked! Also, FYI: they brought back the McRib.  Anyway here’s my version of the sucker, served with a sweet potato puree and toasted oatmeal ice cream.  A simple garnish of ground honey roasted hazelnuts adds a crunch.  The pastry is really similar to chess pie; or the more archaic Barbara Fritchie Pie, which to me tastes like pecan pie without the pecans.  Faithful readers and newbies alike will appreciate the simplicity of this dessert, a nod to seasonality and old world pastry, it’s just fucking good.  I recently traveled to New York to visit my family, and on our way back Shorty and I visited NYC and Momofuku Milk bar. We of course had the original crack pie, and it was damned good, and illuminating.  You see, I had been over-baking mine, looking for it to be totally set.  Miss Tosi pulls hers as it’s just starting to firm up, and serves it cold.  I prefer a room temp treat, but if I baked it her way it would be an oozy mess.  Anyway, I still take mine a bit further in the oven and still serve it room temp.  Another tweak I…tweak is this:  I substitute half of the brown sugar with muscavado sugar, and the butter with brown butter, both in the crust and in the filling.  The molasses-y flavor of this almost ebony sweetener adds a nice bitter tone to an otherwise sticky sweet concoction.  I also use a half sheet pan in lieu of the standard pie pan, because i like rectangles better then wedges.  At the restaurant be call this this little bitch a Brown Sugar Bar, because I don’t want David Chang suing my ass.  But look, if they were worried about me using the recipe, they wouldn’t have published the fucker in Bon Appetit The Ice cream we serve here was created by my pastry cook Liz Clements, who has since moved on to a full time pastry gig in a fancy restaurant. I’m sad to see her go, but proud to have her moving on up in the world.  I also bit this recipe off her before she bounced so it’s all good.  The sweet potato puree is piss easy, a simple process I learned from my Chef Michael: peel and slice the yams, cover ‘em with water, a little salt and a vanilla bean, and boil the shit out of them.  When the water is almost completely evaporated, the potatoes should be completely cooked and ready to puree in your Vita-Prep.  pass the mess through a tamis and cool to room temp before serving.

Brown Sugar Bar

makes 2 half sheet pans

Crust

12 oz brown butter at room temp.

4 oz sugar

4 oz brown sugar

4 oz muscavado sugar

4 eggs

12 oz rolled oats

2 C A.P. Flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1.  Preheat the oven to 325.  Cream the butter and the sugars; add the eggs and scrape, you know the deal.

2.  Add in the dry ingredients, and mix on low until dough just forms.

3.  Spread the batter onto a full sheet pan in an even layer.

4. Bake until GBD

5. Cool completely and then crumble by hand. Then add:

8 oz brown butter

1 1/2 oz brown sugar

1 1/2 oz muscavado sugar

6.  Mix by hand to form a crust like dough, similar to graham cracker crust.

7.  Weigh the dough and divide it between two parchment lined pans.  Press and roll the dough into an even layer.  Set aside so you can make the

Filling

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 1/2 cups muscavado sugar

6 tblsp milk powder

12 oz brown butter, melted and cooled.

1 1/2 tsp salt

10 oz heavy cream

24 egg yolks

3 tblsp vanilla

1.  Whisk together the first four ingredients well, break up any large clumps of sugar with your hands.

2.  Add the melted cooled brown butter and whisk smooth.  Add the remaining ingredients and whisk smooth.

3.  Weigh the batter and divide it between the two pans.  Bake until GBD and just set, the top will have a nice crust.

4.  Cool completely before portioning and putting into your face.

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I shipped it out Thursday, they recieved it Friday vis USPS Express ($25.)  I emailed them to let them know it was on the way and to ask about the turnaround time.  My heart sank as the replier informed me 5-7 days.  A whole week without myPhone!!  I sent back an email proclaiming my blog and its readership ripe with potential customers, could we expedite this process in exchange for a little mrjeffmccarthy.com publicity?  Memorial Day weekend kept me decently distracted, there were people present that had iPhones I could use.  That Monday I checked my email and find out that myPhone had been repaired and was on it’s way back to me as of Saturday!!  My device had been prioritized, shipping had been upgraded to FedEx next day air!  myBrain myPhone was back in the city already!  Also, ipodjuice.com had noticed a small crack on the back plate of myPhone, and replaced it, free of charge.  I opened the FedEx box and pulled out a brand new phone.  Thanks ipodjuice, you earned a link from this blog.  It’s nice to know that some businesses out there are trying to make people happy, exceeding expectations, etc.