Momofuku adventures: pork buns and crack pie

I purchased David Chang's book Momofuku a year ago after reading all sorts of fabulous things about his recipes across a whole heap of food blogs. So far I've only made two dishes (they tend to be fairly involved!), but definitely plan to do more soon.

Pork buns
The recipe for these delicious morsels can also be seen online here. In the book, Chang recommends buying pre-made steamed buns but I thought they were a lot of fun to make and definitely worth the effort. I followed the recipes for the buns and pickled cucumber to the letter (although I found that just folding the rolled-out bun dough in half was easier than using a chopstick). Instead of pork belly I slow-cooked a pork shoulder and sliced that up.

Here's the bun dough after the second rise, ready for steaming:



Post-steaming and splitting:



Assembled, with hoisin sauce, pork, pickled cucumber and spring onions:



Delicious!

I did re-steam the leftover buns after keeping them in the fridge overnight, and wasn't as happy about how they turned out - they were a bit sticky rather than soft and pillowy. Chang recommends freezing them (and steaming from frozen) - perhaps I should have frozen them instead of refrigerating?

Crack pie:
This has got to be the unhealthiest dessert EVER! Check out the recipe - it's basically just a whole lot of sugar, butter and egg yolks, with some heavy cream thrown in for good measure. You make a giant cookie, crumble it up to make two pie bases, and then fill them with a crazy mixture. This recipe was actually the main reason that I bought the book - but it's not in it! Instead Momofuku Milk Bar will have the sweets recipes, including crack pie and all sorts of other goodies. I'll definitely be adding this to my cookbook collection when it's released later this year.

Here's one pie prior to baking:


And the result - it doesn't look like much but it has to be tasted to be believed. Dust the top with some icing sugar and serve it up to sweet-toothed friends!