Oh. Boy. Let’s talk about it. Ice cream moon pies.
My boyfriend Shane is the biggest s’mores fan I have ever met in my life. He especially loves s’mores flavored ice cream. In the summertime as a child, he would always order ice cream moon pies whenever he saw a show at St. Louis’s outdoor amphitheater, The Muny. However, in the past five years or so, The Muny has stopped serving these glorified ice cream sandwiches. And try as we might, unfortunately, we could not find them in ANY grocery stores near us. Sad and disappointed, I was determined to get him what he deserves. After a lot of research, a bit of trial and error, and a lot of moon pies, I finally devised this recipe, and he loves it!
I would call this an adult ice cream sandwich. Sure, kids would love it too, but the flavor profile is not the normal, sickeningly sweet, ice cream sandwich from our childhood. It’s crispy and sweet with the perfect amount of salt. The dark chocolate encasement provides a deep richness that will blow your mind. Of course, this could be for kids, but trust me, you’ll want to keep them all to yourself.
Now, I know what you’re gonna say… it looks like a lot of work. Believe me, it IS a lot of work. But, you know when you spend a lot of time and effort on something and it comes out incredibly well? And you wind up feeling so proud of what you’ve made?! And you seriously can’t believe you made something so delicious, and it makes up for all the time you spent to make it? Well, trust me when I say, that’s exactly how you’ll feel when you make these. You’ll have no regrets, not a single one.
After a day in the freezer is when the flavors really mingle together. The ice cream stays bright and sweet and the graham cracker cookies take on a chewy texture that stays crisp rather than moist. The chocolate gives you the textured crunch to offset the softer middle, and a whole bite is a party in your mouth! Honestly, these ice cream moon pies are just the most incredible things in the world, but the only way to find out just how delicious they are is to make them yourself!
Moon Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches
Ingredients
For the Ice Cream:
- 2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream
- 2/3 cup Whole Milk
- 1½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 6 Egg Yolks
- ⅓ cup Granulated Sugar
- 2 cups Mini Marshmallows (divided)
For the Graham Cracker Cookies
- ¾ cup Unsalted Butter (room temperature)
- ¼ cup Light Brown Sugar (packed)
- 3 tbsp Molasses
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1½ cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1¼ cups Honey Graham Cracker Crumbs (about 1 sleeve of crackers)
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ¾ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 2 tablespoons Milk (preferably whole)
For the Chocolate
- 20 ounces Melting Chocolate (I use Ghiradelli Melting Wafers, they give the best flavor)!!!!
Instructions
For the Ice Cream
- At least a day ahead of time: Put your ice cream maker bowl in the freezer!
- Cover a sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper. Place 1 cup of marshmallows on the pan.
- Put the tray of marshmallows under your oven broiler, and toast until golden brown (about 3 minutes) WATCH CAREFULLY! DO NOT BURN THEM! They will turn from golden to black in the blink of an eye. Set aside and let them cool.
- In a large sauce pan/pot, pour in the cream, milk, vanilla extract, and salt and set over medium-low heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer until you see small bubbles around the edges of the pot. Stir occasionally. This will take about 15 to 18 minutes.
- In a clean, medium-sized bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar together with a whisk until the mixture is thick and pale.
- Once the cream mixture is simmering, use a ladle to spoon the hot cream mixture into the egg and sugar mixture, adding one ladle of hot liquid at a time. While you are adding the hot cream to the yolks, make sure you are whisking constantly and make sure you are adding the cream SLOWLY. We want to bring the eggs to temperature without allowing them to scramble. Continue until all the hot liquid is added to the yolks.
- Transfer the hot cream and egg mixture from the bowl back to the pot, and place it over low heat, stirring constantly. Add in the toasted marshmallows and the other 1 cup of un-toasted marshmallows. Stir until all of the marshmallows dissolve and the custard thickens ~8 minutes.
- Once thick, somewhere between the consistency of eggnog and pudding, remove from heat, and pour it through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and place in the fridge for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
- Once the custard has been in the fridge for at least 4 hours, it is now time to churn your ice cream.
- Pour the chilled custard in the bowl of your ice cream maker and churn according to your machine's directions.
- After about 10-15 min, the ice cream should be thicker. When ready, it will be the consistency of soft serve ice cream, maybe a little looser.
- Transfer ice cream to a freezer-safe container and freeze until solid.
For the Graham Cracker Cookies:
- Set oven to 350°F
- In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter, brown sugar, syrup, molasses and vanilla until mixture is fluffy, about 1 minute.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, graham cracker crumbs, kosher salt, baking powder, and baking soda until homogeneous.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until all of the dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Add the milk one tablespoon at a time. Continue to mix until the dough comes together and does not stick to the side of the bowl.
- Turn dough out onto a large piece of wax paper. Place a piece of wax paper on top of the dough, and roll out the dough between the two pieces of paper. This will help with sticking. You can also try using flour to help you roll out, but the paper has always given me a better yield.
- Roll the dough until it is about ¼ inch thick. Cut out cookies using a 3-inch round cookie cutter. Place cookies on a prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake cookies 10-12 minutes. They will still be soft when you remove them from the oven. Allow cookies to cool completely.
Assembly:
- First make the ice cream, following the recipe. Make sure it is completely frozen solid when you are ready to construct the moon pie.
- Make the cookies, it should not take more than 2 hours.
- Melt the chocolate with your preferred method, I filled a bowl up and microwaved it. I used probably 12-16 oz of chocolate.
- Scoop the ice cream and squish it into the cookie cutter that you used to cut out the graham cracker cookies. This will ensure that your ice cream goes to all ends of the pie. Make the ice cream layer about 1/3 or 1/2 of an inch thick. Place this round ice cream disk in between two graham cracker cookies, pressing firmly but be careful not to break the cookie. If the ice cream is a little drippy at this point, place the sandwich in the freezer for 30 min to 1 hour to refreeze. If the ice cream in your sandwich is still frozen solid then you can immediately move on to the next step.
- Dip the cookie ice cream sandwich in the chocolate. First roll the edges in the chocolate, then carefully dip the bottom half in the chocolate, use a fork to flip it over and coat the other side in chocolate. The entire moon pie should be chocolate coated. Place back in freezer.
- After a couple minutes (about 5) in the freezer, the chocolate coating should be hard. When the chocolate is hard, take the moon pie out and wrap the entire thing in plastic wrap, or place in a ziplock bag to preserve freshness. Then immediately place the wrapped moon pie back into the freezer.
- Freeze for 2+ hours so that the ice cream inside is very hard again and won't squish out when you take a bite. Enjoy!!
Follow me on Instagram @BAKINGWITHLEMON and hashtag your posts #BAKINGWITHLEMON if you make one of my recipes! I adore seeing you guys get creative with baking!
