Crust:
- 20 Oreo cookies
- 5 Tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
- 1 10-ounce bag of marshmallows, minus four. Either eat the four leftover marshmallows out of hand, or shmear them with peanut butter and freeze them. Use them as needed for stress relief.
- 2/3 cup (161 g) half & half
- 2 Tablespoons crème de cacao
- 2 Tablespoons crème de menthe – Peppermint schnapps will work just as well. Except for the color (see below).
- 2 to 3 drops of green food coloring. Maybe. It’s a judgment call.
- 1 cup (232 g) heavy cream
- Fresh mint for garnish
Crush the Oreos, either by hand or in your food processor. Combine them with the melted butter. If you didn’t use a food processor, this is a good opportunity to smash up the larger cookie chunks with your mixing spoon.
Press the chocolate crumb mixture into a pie plate, and chill it in the refrigerator.
Place a medium-sized bowl over a pot of boiling water to make a double-boiler. Melt the marshmallows and the half & half together until the mixture is lump-free, then set it aside to cool slightly.
Whip the heavy cream.
Combine the marshmallow mixture, the whipped cream and the booze. Grasshoppers — the cocktails and the pies — are well-known for their vibrant green color. If this is important to you, add a couple drops of green food coloring to the mixture at this time. (If you actually used crème de menthe, it will already be green and you won’t have to worry about this.)
Spoon the filling into the chilled pie crust, and return it to the refrigerator. Chill it for at least an hour. Overnight might be better.
Serve with more whipped cream and garnish with fresh mint.
This is a delicious pie. How could it not be? Chocolate and butter and marshmallow and mint and cream? Now look at the picture of this piece of pie.
If she were entered into a pie beauty pageant, she wouldn’t even have a shot at winning Miss Congeniality. I wonder if this wouldn’t make a better pudding than a pie — what if we crumbled up the Oreo/butter mixture and divided it between six small bowls, then spooned the filling over that, chilled them separately, and served them with more whipped cream and fresh mint?
Meanwhile, in trying for a prettier pie version of these components, I froze the pie overnight, and it worked beautifully with nice, crisp slices.
Featured photo: Grasshopper Pie. Photo by John Fladd.