This month’s Daring Baker challenge, hosted by Rachel of Pizzarossa, asked participants to bake from Life of Pie. Among the recipes offered was the crack pie — a dessert I hadn’t encountered before. I chose an eggless Nutella crack pie adaptation I found on Show Food Chef, because I wanted something chocolatey for Sruti. The original filling relied on eggs, so I substituted crumbled fresh paneer, which I’ve used successfully in other eggless pie recipes.
The crust for this pie is unusual: it starts as an oat cookie baked in a loaf tin, then crumbled and combined with butter and brown sugar to form the pie shell. The oat cookie was easy to prepare, baked up crisp, and made a wonderfully textured crust — I plan to use the method again. The finished pie was delicious: a crisp, crackly crust and a gooey, intensely chocolate filling. It’s very sweet and perfect for Nutella lovers. My daughter adored it.
Recipe Source: Show Food Chef
Makes: One 7″ pie
Ingredients
For the Oats Cookie Crust
- Butter – 3 tbs + 1 1/2 tbs
- Light brown sugar – 2 + 3/4 tbs
- White sugar – 1 tbs
- Milk – 1/8 cup
- Oats – 2/3 cup
- All-purpose flour (maida) – 1/4 cup
- Baking powder – a pinch
- Baking soda – a pinch
- Salt – 1/8 tsp
For the Filling
- Sugar – 1/3 cup
- Light brown sugar – 1/2 cup
- Salt – 1/4 tsp
- Nutella – 1/2 cup
- Condensed milk – 1/3 cup
- Vanilla – 1/2 tsp
- Crumbled fresh paneer – 1/2 cup
Procedure
For the Oats Cookie Crust
- Cream together 3 tbs butter, 2 tbs light brown sugar and the white sugar until light and combined.
- Add the milk and beat briefly to incorporate.
- In a separate bowl, mix oats, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
- Add the dry mix to the butter mixture and beat until fully combined.
- Line a tray or loaf tin with parchment paper and grease it lightly with butter.
- Transfer the cookie dough into the prepared pan and press it into an even layer.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Bake the cookie layer for 15–20 minutes, or until the top is golden.
- Allow the baked cookie to cool completely in the pan.
- Once cooled, crumble the cookie into a bowl using your fingertips.
- Add 1 1/2 tbs butter and 3/4 tbs light brown sugar to the crumbs and mix with your fingertips until there are no large chunks.
- Grease a 7″ pie dish, transfer the crumb mixture to it, and press with the back of a spoon to form an even crust lining the dish.
For the Filling
- In a bowl, beat together sugar, light brown sugar, vanilla, salt and Nutella until smooth.
- Grind or blend the crumbled paneer with the condensed milk to form a smooth mixture, then add it to the Nutella mixture.
- Beat until creamy and well combined; the filling is now ready to fill the crust.
Assembling and Baking the Pie
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
- Pour the prepared filling into the oat cookie crust.
- Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 170°C (340°F) and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool completely to room temperature.
- Chill the pie in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours to set.
- Remove the pie from the dish, slice and serve.
Cream together butter, brown sugar and white sugar.
Mix flour, oats, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
Add milk and beat.
Add the oats and flour mixture and beat until incorporated.
Line a loaf tin with parchment paper, grease it, transfer the dough and press it evenly.
Bake until golden.
When cool, crumble and combine with butter and brown sugar.
Transfer to a greased pie dish and press to form the crust.
Grind together paneer and condensed milk.
Mix with the other filling ingredients until smooth.
Pour into the prepared crust.
Bake, cool and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Remove from the tin and transfer to a serving plate.
Isn’t it amazing? Who wants a slice?