In honor of both holidays, I decided to go retro for another week and make Grasshopper Pie. Now I'll be honest with you- I've never had a piece of Grasshopper pie so as I read through recipes, I wasn't sure which one to pick.
But then I remembered watching an episode of Nigella Lawson's show where she made the pie. God, how she makes everything look so effortless. Boil marshmallows, no problem. Whisk cream by hand, sure. Oh Nigella. You even make eating leftovers from the refrigerator in your bathrobe look good. I, however, have a window in my kitchen that lets me know that when I (clothed in my pajamas) decide to snack straight out of the pie plate late at night, well, I just look sad and desperate.
Oh well, back to the pie. Here's the thing about Grasshopper pie. It's basically a drink in a crust. Which meant I had to go to the package store with 2 kids in tow and fork over $15 for liquor I will never use again. Sigh....
Also, look at this picture of my bottle of crème de menthe. Notice anything?
It's not that unholy green that it's supposed to be. Thank goodness I had a full tube of green food coloring.
The pie was actually really easy to make. Except for the crust which I found confusing. Every recipe called for some equivalent of Oreos (actually Nigella's original recipe calls for bourbon biscuits which I have no clue about.) But even after reading people's comments, it's still unclear to me whether you leave the cream center in the cookies when you make that crust.
So I defaulted to the chocolate graham cracker crust I used for the red velvet pie a few weeks back (actually I should say that my daughter and I made the crust. She's getting quite handy at pies). And seriously, that crust is so good, I want to be buried in it.
The end result- the pie was OK. It really is just like a minty whipped crème in a crust.
But I do believe in leprechauns now; because even though my husband and I claimed we didn't really like the pie, it disappeared in the middle of the night. :)
Grasshopper Pie
Adapted from Nigella Lawson
Link to Nigella's Grasshopper Pie
Filling:
3 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup crème de menthe
1/4 cup crème de cacao blanc
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
Green food coloring
Melt the marshmallows and milk over low heat. Once the milk foams, take off the heat and stir until the marshmallows are smooth.
Pour the mixture into a heatproof bowl, then whisk in the cream de menthe and the cream de cacao. Leave it to cool (I would suggest putting it in the fridge while you do the next step.)
In a medium bowl, whisk the cream until it has soft peaks then add in the cooled marshmallow mixture. Whisk in some green food coloring.
Put the filling into your prepared crust and let chill for at least 4 hours. I would recommend letting it sit overnight since the flavors were much better the next day.
How could a pie disappear overnight? Mint and marshmallows aren't really my thing but it looks pretty. I'm glad it came out nice.
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