This is the most complicated recipe I’ve posted here. But it’s nowhere else on the internet, and it needs to be shared. Perhaps you’ll get hooked. I am. Perhaps you’ll make them often–that’s less clear–there are a lot of steps. But I decided to push through the complexity and I’m glad I did.

Ever since Bernadette bought me a case of these, I’ve had a hankering for them.

A Moon Pie is fluffy vegan creme (no ‘a’) in between two crunchy chocolate graham crackers enrobed in chocolate.

First, make the aquafaba:

Make a cup of dried chickpeas the usual way. Don’t use salt. Save the cooking water. Eat the chickpeas.

Second, make the creme:

• 3/4 cup aquafaba (the water from the chickpeas, chilled).
• 1/4 teaspoon creme of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (you can use 1/2 cup sugar if you like it sweeter)

You have to use a stand mixer. There really isn’t an option, sorry.

Put the chilled aquafaba and the tartar and the vanilla in the bowl. You’ll need the whipping attachment. Whip at the highest speed for two minutes.

Now, very, very slowly, drizzle the maple syrup into the mixer while whipping. It should take a full minute to drizzle it in.

Let the mixer whip for another five or seven minutes. It’ll look like this:

Super light and airy and it’ll hold a peak.

You can refrigerate this for days and days. It even freezes.

Now, make the cookies.

• 1/2 cup raw almonds
• 1/2 cup raw cashews
• 1/2 cup dried stone cut or regular oats
• 8 dates, soaked in 3/4 cup warm water for an hour or three
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Soak the almonds and cashews for a few hours in cool water, then discard the water.

Put the oats in the food processor and blend until it’s a smooth powder.

Add everything else and blend until it’s a lovely batter.

Pour the batter onto a silpat. The thinner you can spread the batter, the better.

Bake at 250 degrees F or put in your dehydrator at a high temperature–the lower it is, the longer it’ll take. Let it cook for about half an hour, then cut with a pizza cutter–you’ll want rectangles about 1 inch by 2 inches. Put them back into the oven/dehydrator until they’re crisp but not browning.

Once they cool, you’ll have no trouble breaking them into rectangles.

Next, temper the chocolate.

This is much easier than it used to be, because your instant pot now has a sous vide setting. Kenji can show you better than I can. Here’s the method.

Please don’t use cheap chocolate.

Now, assemble the sandwiches.

Lay the cookies on a small sheet you can put in the freezer. Perhaps three across and five deep.

On each cookie, heap a large tablespoon’s worth of vegan creme, and then gently put a cookie on top. This is frustrating work, but you can always lick your fingers as you go. The goal is to make the sandwiches relatively square and neat.

Carefully put the cookie/creme sandwiches in the freezer to firm up.

They shouldn’t become frozen solid. A few minutes is great.

Finally! Enrobe the Moon Pies.

With the tempered chocolate at 28 C (82 F), drop a moon pie into the bowl of chocolate. Use a spatula to gently spoon some chocolate over the moon pie, then use a fork underneath the moon pie to remove it from the bowl and put it on a piece of parchment paper to cool. Here are details.

Once you’ve done them all, store in the freezer, thawing before serving.