When I first made this moon pie recipe, I belonged to a Daring Bakers Challenge group. Each month we challenged ourselves to make something completely new and out of our wheelhouse. At the end of the month, we’d all get together and talk about the techniques we learned and how we improved our baking skills.
Caramel Moon Pie
Sadly, this community has since dissolved but I learned how to make so many amazing desserts when I was part of this inspiring community!
Now, after living in South Korea for three months in 2019, this moon pie recipe has a special place in my heart! Moon pies are the official snack of the entire country, and one man who defected from North Korea was gifted moon pies for the rest of his life!
This moon pie recipe is made with cookies, caramel and marshmallow. It’s a bit complicated, but no worries, I’ve got some great suggestions for making these the easy way too.
You choose! Either make everything from scratch, or simply make these delicious cookies and compile them into this moon pie recipe by using store bought caramels and marshmallows.
Moon Pie Ingredients
The cookies in moon pies are made from a shortbread or graham cookie then mashed together with marshmallows and covered in chocolate. The simple moon pie ingredients you need are flour, sugar, rising agents, a few spices, eggs and… butter of course!
Add some marshmallows, caramel and melted chocolate and you’ve got all the moon pie ingredients you need!
Traditional Moon Pie Recipe
A traditional moon pie recipe does not have caramel in it, but a lot has changed since the traditional version came out in 1917. Now there are all types of moon pie recipe flavors including banana, vanilla, strawberry and yes, caramel!
Why are Moon Pies are always shaped as a full moon? I decided to shake things up a bit and go for a crescent moon shape for this moon pie recipe.
Salted Caramel &
Marshmallow Moon Pie Recipe
Adding a bit of cinnamon spice lends extremely well to the combination of caramel and marshmallow! All put together this moon pie recipe makes a wonderful treat!
Salted Caramel & Marshmallow Moon Pie
Ingredients
Cookie
- 3 cups flour
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅜ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 16 tablespoons butter
- 3 eggs whisked
Marshmallow
- 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup light Karo syrup
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 egg whites
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
Caramel
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 stick of butter
- ½ cup of Karo syrup
- 1 can of evaporated milk
- 1 ¼ cup of whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon salt more or less to taste
- 2 cups chopped and melted chocolate or chocolate chips
Instructions
Cookie
- Blend all dry ingredients together until sifted
- With mixer on low speed add butter one tablespoon at a time
- Add eggs to mixture and mix to incorporate
- Form dough into a ball and wrap in parchment paper
- Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour
- On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to ¼ inch
- Cut out with cookie cutters and place on an ungreased cookie sheet
- Chill for an additional 15 minutes before baking
- Bake for 7-10 minutes at Fahrenheit 375° until edges begin to brown
- Transfer to cool on wire rack
Marshmallow
- Sprinkle gelatin over water and set aside
- Line a 9×13 high edge casserole dish with foil and grease with butter
- Sprinkle foil with powdered sugar
- In a small saucepan, bring water, karo syrup and sugar to a boil and cook to soft-ball stage (235°)
- Remove from heat
- Add gelatin mixture and let dissolve
- In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks
- Add syrup mixture and vanilla and continue to beat egg whites until hard peaks
- Pour mixture into to casserole dish and leave to cool and firm
Caramel
- Bring sugar, karo syrup, salt and cream to a boil in a large saucepan
- Over medium high heat, stir constantly and cook to hard ball stage or 264° on a candy thermometer
- Add evaporated milk, butter and vanilla
- The mixture will boil and sputter, so take care not to burn yourself
- Cook to soft ball stage or 238° on a candy thermometer
- Pour into a full sized greased cookie sheet and allow to cool completely
Finalè
- Place one cookie shape face up
- Using the same cookie cutter as the cookies, cut out the same shapes for both the caramel and the marshmallow
- Place a layer of marshmallow over the bottom cookie
- Place a layer of caramel over the marshmallow
- Top with a second cookie over the caramel
- Place cookies onto a wire rack set over a cookie sheet
- Spoon melted chocolate over tops and sides of cookie allowing the chocolate to drip over the sides of each cookie
- Tap the wire wrack to smooth the chocolate as needed
- Let set until dry
Do You Want More Delicious Salted Caramel Baked Goods?
Check out this Cheesecake Factory Salted Caramel Cheesecake, this Salted Caramel Bundt Cake with a secret ingredient and double caramel topping Pineapple Upside Down Cake.
Make this Moon Pie Recipe the Easy Way
Make the cookies same as the recipe calls for, but swap out the scratch made marshmallows and caramel for store bought versions.
For the marshmallow: Buy a marshmallow sheet and cut out shapes as directed above. Follow the same instructions above for assembly.
For the caramel: Unwrap 24-36 oz of wrapped caramels and melt in a saucepan over low heat until melted. Pour into a full sized greased cookie sheet and allow to cool. Follow the same instructions above for assembly.
Even Easier Moon Pie Recipe
Swap out the cookie for graham crackers!
Where Can I Get a Marshmallow Sheet?
Amazon would be the easiest way, but every time I check the item is unavailable.
World Market claims to sell them locally, but I’ve never gone to one to scope it out.
Online, however, you can purchase them from World Market or direct from the source from Melville Candy.
Where Can I Get Wrapped Caramels?
Every local grocery store will have a bag of wrapped Kraft caramels, or chewy Werther’s caramels.
Ross, TJ Maxx, and Home Goods all typically sell multiple different types of gourmet wrapped caramels.
And Amazon of course!
Not to mention, your local bakery or candy store will likely sell them by the dozen.
What is the Difference Between a Moon Pie and a Whoopie Pie?
Moon pies are cookie sandwiches with marshmallow in the middle, whereas whoopie pies are cake sandwiches with marshmallow frosting in the middle.
I have never had a moon pie.. but I think I would have enjoyed this!
They look yummy!
You know, its funny that you should say "Pie in the Sky" when mentioning Moon Pies, because since Mobile, AL is the original Mardi Gras location (and still the best), our city council thought it would be a great idea to lower a giant, lit up Moon Pie from a crane on New Years Eve. This thing cost thousands of dollars…it was pretty ridiculous. Check it out: http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-173560
P.S. The Moon Pie company revealed a new flavor at this past year's Mardi Gras celebration, which I had to fight for: http://buttercakes.squarespace.com/blog/2009/2/22/mardi-gras-in-mobile-al-this-is-how-we-do-it.html
MMmmm…never had a moon pie…I guess it's a Southern thing, but now I've gotta try it!
The moon pie brings people together! Those are great Evan!
I'm sure none of the moon pies I have had could compare to your picture perfect version. Looks great and I'm sure they taste incredible.
Yum, the caramel addition looks delicious!
Your caramel moon pies look so decadent. Well done!
I love your take on the challenge! I've never heard of a moon pie but it looks decadent.
Caramel moon pies….YUM!!
Those were so freakin fantastic, I ate the other two the next day and loved them all over again. The carmel was perfection.
Wow! These look amazing! I love that you added caramel. Was considering a similar conocoction. Ended up with cherry, white choc and PB varieties but will definitely try the caramel next time!
Kitty. first off..I love your new site design! Secondly…OMG, caramel..come to mama! Your mallow pies are gorgeous and that shiny, gooey caramel is killing me right now! I want one!
On another note, if you turned over my Milans in that first photo, you would laugh. One was literally curved inward so much, it looked like a half moon, and the one facing downward so you could see the top, turned out so wide, your could 'really' call it a Big Butt Biscuit! LOL Trust me, looks can be deceiving in food photography, especially when you can photoshop out the flaws..lol
absolutely decadent, wow…
My girlfriend and I were just down in Tennessee, the birth place of Moon Pies, if I'm not mistaken. Seeing your chocolate caramel one inspires me to make some of my own!
mmmm. These look awesome. I love moon pies, haha. Your cookies look even better than moon pies. Great job!
Those Moon Pies look delish! I'll have to try it (and find my own caramel recipe) 😉
It appears that I am the lucky one in the group. I can attest to the deliciousness of these moon pies! My kids and I recieved this sweet treat left on our doorstep! Thanks again Kitty!!!
I used to love Moon Pies, but the fake artificial banana variety! 😀 Great job with the homemade ones; they're even shaped like moons! Cute!