Easy Milky Way Pie

This pie is pure retro Americana: cherry pie filling spiked with lemon juice, poured into a pie shell, covered with thinly sliced Milky Way bars, and sprinkled with chopped nuts. It’s the kind of recipe you’d find on the back of a candy wrapper in the 1970s, and honestly, it works.

The candy bars melt into the hot cherry filling as it bakes, creating ribbons of caramel, nougat, and chocolate swirled through the fruit. The nuts on top toast up in the oven and add a salty crunch that keeps each bite from being one-note sweet.

Five ingredients, 30 minutes, and a conversation starter at every table.

Pro Tips

• Slice the candy bars as thin as you can. Thinner slices melt more evenly and distribute through the filling instead of sitting in gooey clumps.
• Freeze the candy bars for 15 minutes before slicing. They’re much easier to cut thin when firm. A warm Milky Way just squishes.
• The lemon juice matters. It seems small, but it cuts through all that sweetness and keeps the cherry filling from tasting flat.

Variations

• Snickers version: Swap the Milky Way bars for Snickers bars. The peanuts in the candy add extra crunch so you can skip the chopped nuts on top.
• Apple Milky Way pie: Replace the cherry filling with apple pie filling for a caramel apple candy bar mashup.