So this is a recipe that I had in my back-pocket for a long, long time. Back when I did work at Milkbar, one varaition on Milkbar/Crack Pie that I was working on was incorporating Australian Tim-Tams into the filling. For those who have never had them before, Tim-Tams are these shortbread-like cookie sandwiches with buttercream, covered in chocolate. They are very popular in Australia, and for good reason. For those who have never had a Milkbar/Crack Pie before, it is an invention of Christina Tosi, our dessert matriarch. The dessert used to be called Crack Pie as a reference to how delicious and addictive it was. Ironically, it was named that in part due to an Australian line cook that Christina worked with at restaurant WD-50 who said it was like crack. So full-circle here with the Tim-Tams I guess? But anyways, the pie itself consisted of an oat cookie crust, and the filling was made with tons of cream, sugar, egg yolks, and butter. Kind of like a Southern chess pie, but somehow even less healthy. The pie was later re-named to “Milkbar Pie”, because it was considered a more family-friendly name, and it had to be changed to such since Milkbar signed an agreement to sell desserts at Target, resulting in the name-change. That little Crack/Milkbar Pie history lesson aside, the pie itself is decadence on steroids. Definitely has -1000 nutritional value, but it’s delicious. Well, when eaten cold or chilled that is. My sister’s (least) fondest (and one of the funniest to me) memories around Crack Pie was her purchasing a slice of it, leaving it in her purse on a hot New York summer afternoon, and coming back to her hotel room with her bag drenched in melted butter, and seeing her Crack Pie slice reduced to a soggy oily puddle of butter and oat cookie crust. Fun fact, even before I worked at Milkbar, when they first opened in L.A., I made a joke with my sister that we can now get soggy melted Crack Pie slices at the comfort of our doorsteps now!

For this recipe, we are doing a brown sugar-oat cookie crust. Truthfully, I used my own recipe, and I’m not 100% sure how similar it was to Christina’s, mostly because I measured out my cookies based on a similar ratio to how I make my cookies regularly, subbing out 1/4 cup all-purpose flour with 1/2 cup rolled oats instead. My secret to getting my tart shell baked and ready to fill in a relatively quick manner is I scoop the cookies out to fairly small balls, so that they bake faster. I then use a stand mixer to smush the freshly baked(and still burning-hot) cookies into a malleable crust. For the filling, let the blender do all of the work. I pureed the Tim Tams with heavy cream, egg yolks, salt, and vanilla. I omitted butter and sugar, since that’s what the Tim Tams bring to the party anyways. That and since I’m using powdered sugar on the rim of the pie anyways, I want to cut back on the sugar in the recipe wherever I can. The filling is still just as rich as the original, but with this buttery, chocolate-y flavor that is indicative of you using Tim-Tams in it. I personally love it. I will also warn you, if you are using a fluted tart tin, make sure that the tart is at room temperature when you try to remove the bottom from it. If the pie is too hot, obviously it will fall apart when you try to remove the base of the tin. But I had the opposite issue happen where the tart was frozen solid, and the bottom wouldn’t come off at all. This was because the crust, being made from mashed up cookies, started to sink and enrobe the removable tart bottom, resulting in it getting fused to the shell. And let’s just say in trying to forcibly remove it, I managed to cut 4 of my fingers trying to pry the base off, of which, my thumb had a cut so deep I couldn’t use my right thumb for about two weeks. So please, learn from my mistake there. Or if the bottom doesn’t want to come out, just serve it like that. It’s not worth the fuss. Or even better yet, at Milkbar, we literally serve the Crack/Milkbar Pie directly from a pie tin anyways, so you doing that would just be in the spirit of that tradition! That and at least you’ll still have your thumb not sliced open! So a double win!

For the oat cookies:
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 egg
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

In a bowl, whip the butter with sugar until light brown in color and nearly doubled in volume – about 5-8 minutes. Mix into that the egg, salt, and vanilla. Then fold in the remaining ingredients to form your dough. Scoop 1 1/2 tbsp-sized balls of the dough and place them on a lined sheet tray. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes.

For the crust:
Freshly baked oat cookies
2 tbsp brown butter

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, whip the cookies with melted brown butter until a thick paste forms. Press the paste into the sides of an 8-inch fluted tart tin.

For the filling:
8 Tim Tams
1 cup heavy cream
3 egg yolks
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of cinnamon*

In a blender, puree everything together until fully combined and smooth. Pour the filling into the prepared oat cookie crust. Bake the pie at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Throw the pie into the freezer for 30 minutes before attempting to unmold it.

For garnish:
Confectioner’s sugar

Dust the sides of the pie with confectioner’s sugar to finish.