Candy Bar Pie

If you are looking for an indulgent, over-the-top, rich and gooey dessert, this is definitely the recipe for you. The composition of this recipe is very similar to a classic caramel and chocolate tart, featuring a chewy, gooey caramel and nut filling and a chocolate ganache topping. But replacing the pastry or tart crust with an Oreo crumb crust, adding Snicker’s candy bars – both in the filling and on the top – and finishing with a drizzle of extra caramel pushes the decadence of this dessert right over the edge.

I wish I could tell you where mom came across this one, but A) she didn’t start making this recipe until long after I had moved to the other side of the country and B) despite my best efforts, I could not find any other recipe quite like this one – although I found a similar one called Snickers Pie from 2020. There are plenty of pie recipes that incorporate candy bars, but most of them lean into a cream or cream cheese based filling. Regardless of where she found it, I can see why mom would have been drawn to this recipe. Snickers was always her favorite candy bar – she kept a stash of the king size Snickers at home (she wouldn’t turn down other sizes or shapes of the candy bar, but she always said that the proportions of the nougat, caramel, peanuts and chocolate changed across the different sizes and shapes – for her, the king size bar was the perfect ratio of all the components) and she always ordered the Snickers Sundae when we went out for ice cream. This wasn’t the first Snickers based pie recipe she had tried over the years, but this one has the benefit of being nearly no bake and pretty quick and easy to assemble.

My oldest niece was the one to call out this recipe as her favorite treat that mom made – she said it was “very sweet, but so good” and told me that mostly just she and grandma (mom) ate it. Although, if I had to guess it was probably the nut content more than the sweetness that deterred most other family members from partaking (dad doesn’t object to nuts, but he did say it was a bit too much for him, he could only eat a sliver). The original recipe calls for a 9″ fluted tart pan, which I know mom had at least one such pan, but when I called and texted various family members to confirm, everyone remembers her making this in a 9 1/2″ pie plate instead of the tart pan. That makes a big difference in the form factor of the dessert! (for comparison, the images above show the dessert made as a pie [top] and as a tart [bottom])

I think I mentioned before that mom always wanted her desserts to be a bit extra -extra fillings and extra toppings. That is most likely why she chose to adapt this recipe to make a deeper pie rather than the original tart. I decided to make it both ways (in the interests of being thorough, of course). I have to agree with dad that the pie is a bit much – even at the recommended serving size of 1/16 of the pie. I found the tart form factor to be a better ratio of components (for my tastes) especially after adding some salt and switching to bittersweet chocolate. That being said, it is all about personal preference – my younger son was all over the pie version, preferring it hands down over the tart version (and he was not eating any tiny slivers, he wanted full size pie slices!). In the recipe card, I’ve included both the original measurements and a scaled up version to suit the larger pie pan – make whichever version suits your tastes, whether that is the original way or mom’s way (as dad would say, “the right way” 🙂)

Candy Bar Pie

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This over-the-top dessert is a rich, gooey, indulgent combination of crunchy cookies, buttery caramel, toasted pecans, silky chocolate and, of course, candy bars!

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Chilling Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 50 minutes mins

Servings: 16

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Calories: 500

Equipment Ingredients Method Notes Nutrition

Equipment

• ▢
  9" fluted tart pan, or 9 1/2" pie pan
• ▢
  small bowl, microwave safe
• ▢
  medium heavy bottom sauce pan
• ▢
  medium bowl, heat safe
• ▢
  small saucepan

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x4x

Tart Pan Preparation

Crust:

• ▢ 24 Oreos
• ▢ ⅓ cup butter
• ▢ ¼ tsp salt optional

Filling:

• ▢ 20 caramels 164g
• ▢ ¼ cup heavy cream
• ▢ ¼ tsp salt optional
• ▢ 2 cups chopped pecans
• ▢ 4 Snickers bars 1.86 oz each, chopped

Topping:

• ▢ 1 ¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips
• ▢ ¾ cup heavy cream
• ▢ 2 Snickers bars 1.86 oz each, chopped
• ▢ Caramel ice cream topping optional

Pie Pan Preparation

Crust:

• ▢ 29 Oreos
• ▢ 6 ½ tbsp butter
• ▢ ⅜ tsp salt optional

Filling:

• ▢ 30 caramels 246g
• ▢ 6 tbsp heavy cream
• ▢ ½ tsp salt optional
• ▢ 3 cups chopped pecans
• ▢ 6 Snickers bars 1.86 oz each, chopped

Topping:

• ▢ 2 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
• ▢ 1 ¼ cup heavy cream
• ▢ 2-3 Snickers bars 1.86 oz each, chopped
• ▢ Caramel ice cream topping optional

Method

 

Cook Mode Cook Mode

 

To make the chocolate cookie crust:

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F. Lightly grease your pan (9" fluted tart pan or 9"-9 1/2" pie pan, depending on whether you are using the tart pan preparation or pie pan preparation ingredient proportions)
2. Put the butter in a small, microwave safe bowl. Using either the melt butter function on your microwave or short (20-30 second) bursts, melt the butter. Set aside to cool slightly.

   Tart: 1/3 cup (78 g) butter

   Pie: 6 1/2 tbsp (91 g) butter
3. In the bowl of a large food processor, pulse the Oreo cookies (and salt if you are using it) until they are fine crumbs.

   Tart: 24 Oreos, 1/4 tsp (¼ tsp) salt

   Pie: 29 Oreos, 3/8 tsp (⅜ tsp) salt
4. Add the melted butter and pulse a few times until it is combined and starting to clump together.
5. Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of your prepared pan. Bake in your preheated oven for 8-10 minutes.

To make the caramel pecan filling:

1. In a medium, heavy bottomed sauce pan combine the caramels and cream (and salt, if you are using it). Place over low to medium low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the caramels are completely melted.

   Tart: 20 caramels, 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream, 1/4 tsp (¼ tsp) salt

   Pie: 30 caramels, 6 tbsp (90 ml) heavy cream, 1/2 tsp (½ tsp) salt
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the chopped pecans. Pour the mixture into the crust.

   Tart: 2 cups (224 g) chopped pecans

   Pie: 3 cups (336 g) chopped pecans
3. Arrange the chopped Snickers bars evenly over the surface of the caramel pecan mixture.

   Tart: 4 Snickers bars

   Pie: 6 Snickers bars

To make the chocolate ganache topping:

1. Place the chocolate chips in a medium, heat safe bowl.

   Tart: 1 1/4 cups (225 g) semisweet chocolate chips

   Pie: 2 1/2 cups (450 g) semisweet chocolate chips
2. In a small sauce pan, heat the heavy cream just to a simmer.

   Tart: 3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy cream

   Pie: 1 1/4 cup (300 ml) heavy cream
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate in the medium bowl. Make sure all of the chocolate chips are submerged and let the mixture sit for about a minute.
4. Starting in the center and working in gradually widening circles, whisk the mixture until all of the chocolate is melted and it is completely smooth.
5. Pour chocolate ganache over the top of the pie, if necessary, use a small offset spatula to spread it to the edges.
6. Distribute the chopped Snickers bars over the top of the ganache.

   Tart: 2 Snickers bars

   Pie: 2-3 Snickers bars
7. Refrigerate the pie for at least 1 hour or until set. Cut into small slices to serve, if desired, drizzle the individual slices with caramel ice cream topping.

   Tart and Pie: Caramel ice cream topping

Notes

Preparation notes, changes and optional variations:

• If you are using any caramels other than Kraft it is best to go by weight. If you are using Werther’s chewy or soft caramels, you can go by weight or increase the number of individual caramels by 1/3 (4 Werther’s caramels to every 3 Kraft caramels).
• The optional salt in the crust and filling is my addition, this pie is very rich and extremely sweet – the salt helps balance it just a little.
• I recommend using bittersweet chocolate instead of the semisweet chocolate in the topping – partly because I prefer darker chocolate and partly to help balance the sweetness of the caramel and the candy bars.
• I recommend toasting the pecans to deepen and enhance their sweet, nutty flavor. Alternatively, you can buy already toasted/roasted pecans. 
• The original recipe called for 2 cups of semisweet chocolate to 1 cup of heavy cream – I know mom would have increased that when she scaled this up to a regular pie pan, hence the 2 1/2 cups chocolate to 1 1/4 cups heavy cream for the pie pan version.
  • However, I felt like the original amount of ganache was overwhelming for the much thinner tart format so I adjusted that down to 3/4 scale.

Note on Nutrition Information:

The nutrition information for this recipe was calculated for the tart format preparation. If you are using the pie format preparation, you can increase all of the nutritional facts by about 1 1/2 times. 

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Nutrition

Serving: 1sliceCalories: 500kcalCarbohydrates: 45gProtein: 6gFat: 34gSaturated Fat: 13gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gMonounsaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 32mgSodium: 261mgPotassium: 291mgFiber: 3gSugar: 33gVitamin A: 397IUVitamin C: 0.4mgCalcium: 71mgIron: 4mg

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