Gooey Butter Pie with Oat Cookie Crust
A dense, gooey butter and brown sugar filling thickened with egg yolks and milk powder, in a crust of crumbled homemade oat cookie, baked briefly and frozen until it slices like soft caramel. Inspired by Milk Bar's Milk Bar Pie; not official.
Edited by JP Lambiase
Change the estimate
Swaps change the price only: cook any meat to its own safe temperature. Where these numbers come from
This is a chess pie (our Southern Lemon Chess Pie recipe) wearing a disguise. Wikipedia says pastry chef Christina Tosi first made it as a staff meal at the New York restaurant wd~50, starting from a chess pie recipe in the 1931 Joy of Cooking, which she described as something "the old gals of yesteryear made when there was nothing to really make pie out of" (citing Tosi's Milk Bar cookbook). She swapped heavy cream in for buttermilk to make it gooier and replaced the flour with corn powder and milk powder for flavor, then gave it an oatmeal cookie crust when she opened her own New York bakery in 2008. It became her signature: in 2010 the Los Angeles Times called the $44 price "jaw-dropping" (via Wikipedia). In March 2019 Boston Globe critic Devra First argued that the pie's original name made light of addiction, and the next month the bakery renamed it after itself; the recipe did not change (Wikipedia). This is our home version, made from the published recipe, scaled to one pie and simplified.
🇺🇸 This one is American
A dense, gooey butter and brown sugar filling thickened with egg yolks and milk powder, in a crust of crumbled homemade oat cookie, baked briefly and frozen until it slices like soft caramel. Inspired by Milk Bar's Milk Bar Pie; not official.
🇬🇧 The original
The British original is the mince pie: a small, sealed pastry of dried fruit, suet and spice that once held real minced meat. See the British Mince Pies recipe.
📖 Origin story: Why Is It Called Chess Pie? →
Why it works the kitchen science
Yolks only
Egg whites set firm and springy; using only yolks, plus butter and cream, gives a filling that stays soft and fudgy, and Milk Bar warns that even a little white spoils the texture.
Milk powder
Dry milk adds concentrated dairy flavor and a little body without adding water, so the filling tastes like the inside of a butter caramel.
🧰 You'll need 8 items
Everything the steps call for. Tick off what you have before you start.
Appliances
Pans and pots
Tools
Supplies
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 350°F. Beat the butter and both sugars 2 to 3 minutes, until pale and fluffy, then beat in the egg yolk 1 to 2 minutes. On low speed, mix in the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt, about 1 minute.
- Step 2
Spread the dough about 1/4 inch thick in the middle of a parchment-lined quarter sheet pan (it won't fill the pan) and bake 15 minutes, until caramelized on top, slightly puffed and firm. Cool completely.
- Step 3
Pulse the cooled cookie with the brown sugar and salt in a food processor to wet sand (or crumble it by hand). Knead in the melted butter until it holds together, adding a little more butter if it is dry, then press it firmly over the bottom and sides of a 10-inch pie tin.
✓ What it should look like - Step 4
Whisk the sugars, milk powder, flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the melted butter until the dry ingredients are moist, then the cream and vanilla until no white streaks remain, then the yolks, just until glossy and smooth. Stir gently; whipping air in makes the pie less dense.
- Step 5
Pour the filling into the crust, set the tin on a sheet pan and bake at 350°F for 15 minutes only: the top should be golden but still very jiggly.
✓ What it should look like - Step 6
Open the oven door and turn the oven down to 325°F, leaving the pie inside. Once the oven is at 325°F (about 5 minutes or more), close the door and bake 5 minutes more, until the edges are set and the center still jiggles. If it is still very loose, give it about 5 minutes more.
- Step 7
Cool on a rack to room temperature, then freeze at least 3 hours or overnight; freezing is what makes it dense and gooey. Serve cold, dusted with powdered sugar. Keep it wrapped in the refrigerator up to 5 days.
Gooey Butter Pie with Oat Cookie Crust
Serves 8 · one 10-inch pie · 1 hr 10 min total
Oat cookie
- 4 tbsp (57 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3 tbsp (37 g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp (20 g) sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/4 cup (40 g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (60 g) old-fashioned rolled oats
- A pinch each of baking powder and baking soda
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
Crust
- 1/2 tbsp (8 g) packed light brown sugar
- A pinch of salt
- 2 tbsp (28 g) unsalted butter, melted, plus a little more if needed
Filling
- 3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
- 1/2 cup packed (90 g) light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp (10 g) nonfat dry milk powder
- 2 tbsp (12 g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
- 8 tbsp (113 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/3 cup (80 g) heavy cream
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 large egg yolks (no whites at all)
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Equipment: Oven, Food processor, Rimmed baking sheet, Chef's knife and cutting board, Measuring cups and spoons, Mixing bowls, Whisk, Parchment paper
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Beat the butter and both sugars 2 to 3 minutes, until pale and fluffy, then beat in the egg yolk 1 to 2 minutes. On low speed, mix in the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt, about 1 minute.
- Spread the dough about 1/4 inch thick in the middle of a parchment-lined quarter sheet pan (it won't fill the pan) and bake 15 minutes, until caramelized on top, slightly puffed and firm. Cool completely.
- Pulse the cooled cookie with the brown sugar and salt in a food processor to wet sand (or crumble it by hand). Knead in the melted butter until it holds together, adding a little more butter if it is dry, then press it firmly over the bottom and sides of a 10-inch pie tin.
- Whisk the sugars, milk powder, flour and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the melted butter until the dry ingredients are moist, then the cream and vanilla until no white streaks remain, then the yolks, just until glossy and smooth. Stir gently; whipping air in makes the pie less dense.
- Pour the filling into the crust, set the tin on a sheet pan and bake at 350°F for 15 minutes only: the top should be golden but still very jiggly.
- Open the oven door and turn the oven down to 325°F, leaving the pie inside. Once the oven is at 325°F (about 5 minutes or more), close the door and bake 5 minutes more, until the edges are set and the center still jiggles. If it is still very loose, give it about 5 minutes more.
- Cool on a rack to room temperature, then freeze at least 3 hours or overnight; freezing is what makes it dense and gooey. Serve cold, dusted with powdered sugar. Keep it wrapped in the refrigerator up to 5 days.
Adapted from the bakery's own published recipe, Milk Bar, "Milk Bar Pie Recipe" (oat cookie, filling and assembly, written for two 10-inch pies). We halve it for one 10-inch pie, which matches the filling amounts in Milk Bar's single-pie Bake Club version (November 23, 2020:), keep one whole egg yolk in the half-size oat cookie, and use flour in place of corn powder, the substitution Milk Bar's Bake Club page allows. We whisk the filling by hand gently instead of using the stand mixer the full recipe requires; the Bake Club version mixes it in a bowl. Inspired by, not official. Story from Wikipedia, linked above. Milk Bar. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Separate the eggs carefully, letting the whites slip through your fingers; wash your hands well before and after (Milk Bar).
- The half-size oat cookie makes a little more than you may need; any extra crumbs are a baker's snack.
- Milk Bar keeps frozen pies up to 1 month; thaw in the refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- It is just a chess pie. Documented as its origin: Wikipedia says Tosi built it from a 1931 Joy of Cooking chess pie recipe, swapping cream for buttermilk and milk and corn powders for flour.
- The name changed because the recipe changed. Folklore: Wikipedia and the coverage it cites say the 2019 rename followed criticism of the old name; the recipe stayed the same.
- You need corn powder. Folklore: Milk Bar's own Bake Club version says flour can stand in.
- This is the bakery's recipe. Folklore: ours is a scaled, simplified home version; inspired by, not official.
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