Choco Pie — Korea's chocolate-coated marshmallow cake

i. Origin & history

The chocolate-covered marshmallow sandwich has American roots. The MoonPie, made in Chattanooga, Tennessee, since the early twentieth century, put marshmallow between two graham biscuits and dipped the whole thing in chocolate, and it became a Southern institution. In 1974, the South Korean confectionery company Orion launched its own version, the Choco Pie, with soft, cake-like biscuits instead of the crisp grahams, in individual wrappers. It is usually said to have been inspired by snacks the company's researchers encountered abroad, and it was an immediate success.

Other Korean companies followed, most notably Lotte, which launched its own Choco Pie a few years later. Orion tried to protect the name, but Korean courts eventually ruled that 'choco pie' had become a generic term for this kind of snack, which is why several brands now use it. Orion's red box carries the Chinese character 情 (jeong), a Korean word for deep affection and bonds between people, and its advertising has long presented the Choco Pie as something to share with friends and family.

The snack's most remarkable chapter took place in North Korea. At the Kaesong Industrial Complex, the joint inter-Korean industrial park that operated from the mid-2000s until 2016, South Korean companies gave Choco Pies to North Korean workers as snacks and bonuses. Many workers did not eat them but sold them on, and Choco Pies circulated on North Korean black markets as a symbol of the prosperity of the South, at times reportedly worth far more than their price.

Today Choco Pies are sold around the world. They are hugely popular in China, Vietnam, India and especially Russia, where Orion built factories, and they remain a staple snack in South Korea, given as small gifts, packed in lunch boxes and stacked as an improvised birthday cake with a candle on top.

ii. Keeping the cake soft and the marshmallow springy

What separates a Choco Pie from a MoonPie or a biscuit sandwich is softness. The two outer layers are not crisp biscuits but small, domed sponge cakes, similar to a whoopie pie or a soft cookie-cake. Honey or golden syrup in the batter keeps them moist and tender, because these sugars attract and hold water; that is why factory Choco Pies stay soft for weeks. Bicarbonate of soda gives the cakes a light, open crumb and helps them brown.

The marshmallow layer is a whipped mixture of sugar syrup and gelatine. Hot syrup is beaten into dissolved gelatine until the mixture turns white, thick and fluffy and triples in volume; as it cools, the gelatine sets and holds the air, giving the springy, slightly chewy marshmallow. Piped onto the cakes while still warm and soft, it spreads into an even layer and bonds the two halves together.

The chocolate coating needs to be thin and set firm at room temperature without tempering. A little coconut oil or neutral oil mixed into melted chocolate makes it thinner and more fluid, so it coats the cakes in a fine shell, and keeps it from cracking when the soft cake is bitten.

Finally, rest matters. Freshly assembled Choco Pies are slightly dry; after a day in an airtight container, moisture from the marshmallow moves into the cake and the whole thing becomes soft and cohesive, much closer to the packaged original.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 8 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 60 g soft unsalted butter
• 70 g light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp honey or golden syrup
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 150 g plain flour
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 50 ml milk
• 7 g powdered gelatine
• 100 g caster sugar (marshmallow)
• 50 g liquid glucose or golden syrup (marshmallow)
• 250 g milk or dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp coconut oil or neutral oil

Honey or golden syrup in the cake keeps it soft and moist. The cakes are not cocoa cakes: the original Choco Pie has plain, pale sponge layers, with all the chocolate in the coating. Milk chocolate gives the closest match to the Korean original; dark chocolate makes a less sweet, more adult version. For a shortcut, use about 200 g of shop-bought marshmallow fluff or melted marshmallows instead of the homemade marshmallow, though it will be softer and stickier.

iv. Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F), conventional heat. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. Beat the butter, brown sugar and honey until light. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt and fold into the butter mixture with the milk to a thick, smooth batter.
3. Pipe or spoon 16 rounds of batter about 5 cm across onto the trays, spaced well apart. Bake for 8–10 minutes, until risen, set and just golden at the edges. Cool on a rack.
4. For the marshmallow, sprinkle the gelatine over 4 tbsp cold water in a heatproof bowl. In a small pan, heat the caster sugar, glucose and 3 tbsp water, stirring until dissolved, then boil without stirring until it reaches 115 °C (240 °F).
5. Pour the hot syrup onto the gelatine and whisk with an electric mixer on high for 6–8 minutes, until white, thick and fluffy.
6. Turn half the cakes flat side up. Pipe or spoon a generous mound of warm marshmallow onto each and top with the remaining cakes, pressing gently so the marshmallow reaches the edges. Leave to set for 30 minutes.
7. Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil. Dip each sandwich into the chocolate, using two forks to turn it and coat it all over, let the excess drip off and set on a rack over baking paper.
8. Leave at room temperature for 1–2 hours until the chocolate has set, then store in an airtight container for a day before eating, so the cakes soften.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Keep the cakes even. Piping the batter with a round nozzle gives same-sized cakes that pair neatly.
• Do not overbake. The cakes should be pale with golden edges. Overbaked, they become dry biscuits rather than soft cakes.
• Use a thermometer for the syrup. Syrup below 115 °C makes runny marshmallow; much hotter, and it sets too firm.
• Work with warm marshmallow. It sets quickly; pipe it while still soft and glossy so it spreads and sticks.
• Thin the chocolate. Coconut oil makes the coating thinner and less likely to crack.
• Rest them overnight. A day in an airtight box turns them from cake-and-filling into a soft, unified Choco Pie.

vi. Variations

Korean confectioners have released many flavours over the years, including strawberry, banana, green tea, red bean and mint chocolate, as well as seasonal limited editions. Some versions sandwich a layer of jam with the marshmallow. The American MoonPie uses graham biscuits and comes in larger sizes; the British Jaffa Cake combines sponge, orange jelly and chocolate; and the Danish and Scandinavian chocolate-covered marshmallow treats are a related family.

Similar chocolate-coated marshmallow sweets exist across Europe, including the Russian ptichye moloko ('bird's milk') sweets and cake. On DessertCat, try the chocolate marshmallow pie, toasted marshmallow fudge or Korean hotteok.

vii. Serving & storage

Choco Pies are eaten as a snack at any time of day, with milk, tea or coffee. In Korea they are shared at school and at work, given to soldiers and offered as small gifts, and a stack of Choco Pies with a candle on top is a familiar improvised birthday cake. Briefly microwaved for 5–10 seconds, they become warm and gooey, a popular trick.

Homemade Choco Pies keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days, and they improve after the first day as the cake softens. Keep them out of the fridge, which dulls the chocolate and hardens the marshmallow. They freeze well for up to a month, individually wrapped; thaw at room temperature.

ix. More from Korean

• Hotteok — Korean filled pancakes
• Bungeoppang — fish-shaped pastries
• Croffle — croissant waffle
• Yaksik — sweet medicinal rice
• Jaffa Cakes — sponge, orange and chocolate
• Chocolate Marshmallow Pie — gooey chocolate pie