Milk Bar Pie

Milk Bar Pie, also known as Crack Pie, is a dessert created by the American chef Christina Tosi in 2008 while working at the New York City restaurant wd~50. It became the signature dish of Tosi's bakery, Milk Bar.

Tosi originally named the dessert Crack Pie for its addictive qualities, but changed it to Milk Bar Pie in 2019 after the name was criticized as insensitive.

Development
The American chef Christina Tosi created Milk Bar Pie, initially known as Crack Pie, for a staff meal while working at the New York City restaurant wd~50. She described regularly making desserts from "whatever mise-en-place was left over from the previous night's service". When missing ingredients one morning, she came across a recipe for chess pie in Joy of Cooking. Tosi describes chess pie as something "the old gals of yesteryear made when there was nothing to really make pie out of". She substituted heavy cream for the called-for buttermilk to create a gooier consistency and corn powder and milk powder for the called-for flour to create a more interesting flavor. The pie was popular at family meals.

Milk Bar
When Tosi opened Momofuku Milk Bar in 2008, she revised the Crack Pie to include an oatmeal-cookie crust. It became her signature product. According to Vice, "Tosi’s Milk Bar has been synonymous with the Crack Pie". Gourmet called it Tosi's "defining dessert". Bon Appetit called it her "most buzzed-about dish". New York Daily News called it "New York's favorite sugar high". In December 2009, Anderson Cooper appeared on Regis and Kelly discussing the pie. The New York Times called the appearance a "seminal moment".

The Los Angeles Times in 2010 said the price of the pie, then $44, was "jaw-dropping"; it attributed the pie's having "taken New York City by storm" partially to the price. Axios in 2022 called the dish a "cult favorite". Tosi's first cookbook, Momofuku Milk Bar (2011), contains a recipe for the pie.

Name change
Some food writers and others have criticized naming foods including Crack Pie after addictive substances as insensitive and offensive. In May 2019, Devra First of the Boston Globe criticized the name in a column for making light of addiction by alluding to the addictiveness of crack cocaine. The following month, Milk Bar changed the name to Milk Bar pie.