Cookie

Josh Casper is a chef at The Depot in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I’d dined there tons of times before I learned that the person making the delicious things I was eating loved the intersection of food, connection, and hospitality, just like me.

God bless Instagram.

I can’t seem to get my words around anything this past week… My husband wrote something that made me cry, and then I read something Josh wrote and felt a “yes! that’s it! yes!” so I asked him to share something with Mess of Greens. Not only did he share a beautiful reflection on living and loving people during hard times in a kitchen, but also the most beautiful chocolate chip cookie recipe. Talk about food for comfort.

I’m pretty sure you’re going to love what he’s written and his thoughtful voice. So, once you read it, head over to his instagram account for more, and then, the next time you’re in Hattiesburg eat some of his food… because, as Brian Andreas says “There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each others cooking & say it was good.”

– Biz

…

I turned twenty nine on Saturday (yikes!), and when my mama asked my what kind of birthday cake I wanted, I told her that I’d rather have a Tollhouse Pie like the one from one of my favorite Atlanta restaurants, Murphy’s. sure, there are “traditionally” southern establishments in ATL, but it IS in atlanta, and has been around for an unusually long time (I ate there with my debate team in high school, on my first Atlanta apartment hunting trip with my mom, and then again on an early date with boone), plus, it’s just delicious. Murphy’s is in my fave ATL neighborhood, the highlands, and is super close to the teeny basement apartment where boone proposed…and their tollhouse pie is. the. bomb. dot. com.

i know it was my own birthday dessert, but mama let me help with the baking since I love doing it but always feel like i need a really good reason to put so much labor and love into something so unhealthy. regardless, we had a great time baking–and then eating– that pie. read on for the recipe.

What you need:

For the Oreo Crust:

7/8 Cup (7 oz) fine Oreo crumbs

1/4 Cup chopped walnuts

1/4 Cup Salted (or unsalted, but salted works fine) Butter

For the Filling:
1 Cup Light brown sugar (had dark brown, and it works just fine)
6 tablespoons (3 oz) Granulated sugar
3/4 Cup (6 oz) Bread flour
4 eggs (the recipe doesn’t say, but I figure this is 4 med or 3 large)

5/8 Cup (5 oz) butter
5/8 Cup (5 oz)Chocolate chips
5/8 Cup (5 oz)White chips
5/8 Cup (5 oz) chopped Walnut pieces
we added 1/4 tsp of vanilla

What to do:
To make the crust, crush the oreo cookies without the cream into a fine powder using a food processor, (or better yet, use the pre-crushed oreo crumbs) Melt the butter and with the crumbs and nuts. Press into a 10” pie tin. Cool until hard.

Blend together with the paddle part of your mixer the brown and granulated sugar and the flour.

Add in the eggs, and then melt the butter for the filling and cool to room temperature and pour it into the mixture. (this keeps the butter from scrambling the eggs, I figure). Mix the chips and walnuts into the batter slowly until blended.

so, so, so delicious.

Pour the batter into the prepared crust; bake at 250 degrees for 90 – 110 minutes until the crust is light brown. Let it cool completely before serving if you want it to be firm and cut cleanly. I honestly couldn’t wait because i wanted warm pie so badly…I ended up with un-perfect slices. oh well. it didn’t taste un-perfect.

note on my photos: although my mama was 100% against my help on my own cake, my really good reason was the NEW camera boone gave me….it had to charge for most of the baking, but the last few photos were taken with it. i’m smitten with how sexy the photos turned out and with my wonderful honey who knew EXACTLY what I wanted. 😉 it’s A-mazing what the right tools can do.

Footer