I first saw Christina Tosi on Masterchef Jr. with Gordon Ramsey.  I thought she was adorable, but I didn’t know much about her until I listened to Guy Raz’s Podcast, “How I Built This” from NPR.  There’s where the Girl Crush comes in.  Her story was fascinating to me, especially her innovative approach to baking.  Cereal milk to make cookies?  Make a cookie and then tear it all apart to make a pie crust???  Right up my alley.  Almost two years ago I blogged an idea for making pie crust out of pretzels, sugar and butter  with a dash of cayenne pepper and I thought I invented the method!  I guess not.

By total coincidence, my Grandson Steven got Christina Tosi’s cookbook and we devoured it!  I was determined to make the famous “Crack Pie”.  I did it, but it took me 2 days, since I had to search for unusual ingredients such as milk powder and corn powder.  I did my best, and came as close to her recipe as possible.  We spent the next Christmas vacation week doling out ‘bites’ of the most delicious pie I’ve ever tasted to family, friends and neighbors.

But the sad news is that this complicated  pie is not in my 60 years plus cooking comfort zone, so in the future I will probably buy it on line (google Milk Bar and Christina Tosi for info on her books and products).  All her products are available for shipping.  But right now, I need to get to the reason for this post:  The Oatmeal cookie crust!  Now that’s a component I WILL make.  And I will use other crazy ingredients for pie crusts too.  I will say that on it’s own, the cookie was one of the most delicious Oatmeal cookies I’ve ever tasted.  So I will adopt this recipe for my future cookies.  It will be very easy to convert to a regular cookie format.  But here’s the recipe for the Oatmeal Cookie/crust from Christina Tosi:

OATMEAL COOKIE/CRUST

8 Tablespoons room temperature butter

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3 Tbs. white sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1/8 tsp. baking powder

pinch baking soda

In a mixer with paddle attachment mix the butter and  sugars for 2 or 3 minutes or till it’s yellow and fluffy.  Add the egg yolk and mix a couple more minutes until sugars are dissolves and the color is pale.

On low speed add remaining dry ingredients.  Mix until all ingredients are incorporated and become a loose ball.  On a greased cookie sheet, or on a Silpat, place dough on sheet and spread out with your fingers or a spatula until its a big cookie.  No need to fill the sheet.  Bake at 350 about 15 minutes.  Cool and proceed with your crust (or just eat the cookie!).  I broke mine up into chunks and put them in my Food Processor with 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 stick melted butter.  I added 1 Tbs. water so the ball was spreadable with my fingers into a pie plate.  No need to bake until you fill it with your filling.  Also, Christina’s recipe called for two pie plates.  I have a pretty big one, so I just did one pie.  The crust may be thicker, but we gobbled it up anyway!!  When I make the crust the next time I’m going to make a nice custard filling–sorry CT–I will buy yours on line!!

Deeeelish.  Ask me how I know….