During many a week, candy bars make up 50 percent (or more) of my diet. As a teen, I already showed a predilection for staying hip to the culinary scene at the grocery store, trolling the aisles to check out interesting frozen items, new cereals, perhaps a vamped-up cookie section, and, of course, the impulse-buy area—one of my favorites—with its multitude of candy bars trying to break into the market. Which is why I was hooked on Take 5 candy bars long before I ever thought about making a pie inspired by them. I was blown away by my first bite of one, in the passenger seat of the family van in the Giant parking lot of NoVa. My sister had one cluster, and the other was all mine. It is the epitome of perfectly layered chocolate, peanuts, caramel, peanut butter, and pretzels. Hershey’s describes it as “a unique taste experience combining five favorite ingredients in one candy bar. The result is a delicious salty sweet snack unlike anything else.” Amazing. For my birthday a couple of years ago, Dave bought me two cases, that’s 480 clusters, of Take 5 candy bars and dared me to eat them all in a month. With a little help from my friends, I did it in twenty-eight days. On my birthday, that first day, I ate seven—and then puked the next morning (bad idea). Marian Mar made a big push to get this pie on the opening menu of Milk Bar, because, as she once put it, we are candy bars, and candy bars are us. So we need a candy bar pie on the menu. It’s a little bit of a bitch to make, which was my main argument for wanting to leave it off the menu. But working in this industry is a labor of love, after all, and Marian was right all along. This pie is one of our top sellers even today. We lovingly refer to it at Milk Bar as the T-5 pie.

　　

Ingredients

Makes 1 (10-inch) pie; serves 8

　　1 recipe Salty Caramel (recipe follows), melted

　　1 recipe Chocolate Crust (page 92), refrigerated

　　8 mini pretzels

　　1 recipe Peanut Butter Nougat (recipe follows)

　　45 g 55% chocolate (1 1/2 ounces)

　　45 g white chocolate (1 1/2 ounces)

　　20 g grapeseed oil (2 tablespoons)

　　

Step 1

Pour the salty caramel into the crust. Return it to the fridge to set for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

　　

Step 2

Heat the oven to 300°F.

　　

Step 3

Spread the pretzels out on a sheet pan and toast for 20 minutes, or until they have slightly darkened in color and the kitchen smells pretzely. Set aside to cool.

　　

Step 4

Fetch the pie from the fridge and cover the face of the hardened caramel with the nougat. Use the palms of your hands to press down and smooth the nougat into an even layer. Return the pie to the fridge and let the nougat firm up for 1 hour.

　　

Step 5

Make a chocolate glaze by combining the chocolates and the oil in a microwave-safe bowl and gently melting them on medium in 30-second increments, stirring between blasts. Once the chocolate is melted, whisk the mixture until smooth and shiny. Use the glaze the same day, or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 weeks.

　　

Step 6

Finish that pie: Remove it from the refrigerator and, using a pastry brush, paint a thin layer of the chocolate glaze over the nougat, covering it completely. (If the glaze has firmed up, gently warm it so it is easy to paint on the pie.) Arrange the pretzels evenly around the edges of the pie. Use the pastry brush to paint the remaining chocolate glaze in a thin layer over the pretzels, sealing their freshness and flavor.

　　

Step 7

Put the pie in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to set the chocolate. Wrapped in plastic, the pie will keep fresh in the fridge for 3 weeks or in the freezer for up to 2 months; defrost before serving.

　　

Step 8

Cut the pie into 8 slices, using the pretzels as your guide: each slice should have a whole pretzel on it.

　　

notes

Step 9

In this recipe, we make a chocolate glaze for the top of the pie using dark chocolate, white chocolate, and oil. I like to refer to it as “cleverly avoiding tempering chocolate,” which is a fussy, somewhat temperamental way of structuring chocolate so that it sets with a shiny, crisp coat. But stirring oil into melted chocolate allows us to glaze the top of the pie with a brush and set it in the refrigerator. The chocolate still has a nice, thin crispness while maintaining a certain malleability, ensuring a clean cut down through the many layers of the pie.

　　

Step 10

Toasting pretzels deepens their flavor significantly.

　　

Step 11

Note that the nougat must be made within 5 or 10 minutes of when you want to press it into the pie.

　　Reprinted with permission from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi with Courtney McBroom. Copyright © 2011 by MomoMilk, LLC. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Christina Tosi is the chef and owner of Momofuku Milk Bar, called "one of the most exciting bakeries in the country" by Bon Appètit. As founder of the desserts programs at Momofuku, including Noodle Bar, Ssäat;m Bar, Ko and Má Pêche, Christina was most recently shortlisted for a James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef Award. Christina and her confections have appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and Live! with Regis and Kelly, among others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her three dogs and eats an unconscionable amount of raw cookie dough every day.