Grasshopper Pie

This is really just a variation of our family favorite Easy Cherry Cheesecake, so we were positive we'd like this recipe from the Old-Fashioned Bake Sale Cookbook. And we did. 

Surprisingly, however, it was quite difficult to find the all proper ingredients! The recipe called for a Chocolate Crumb Crust, but we checked a few grocery stores, and none of them carried that item. I couldn't find any chocolate graham crackers, either! I had decided that I could make some chocolate cookies and use them to bake the crust myself, when we finally stumbled upon some chocolate wafer cookies in the ethnic section of the store. That saved at least one step.

 

Graham Cracker (or Chocolate Wafer) Crumb Crust

• 2 cups cracker/cookie crumbs
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Combine all ingredients. Press into pie plate. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool before filling. 

Note: I use my mini food processor to make the crumbs, then add the sugar and butter to the bowl and mix them together. To save dirtying a pan to melt the butter, I often use the pie plate and the microwave to do that step.

Grasshopper Pie

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 8 ounces whipped topping, thawed
• 3 drops green food coloring
• 1 cup chopped Keebler Grasshopper cookies (or Girl Scout Thin Mints)
• 1 chocolate crumb pie crust

Beat together the cream cheese and sugar. Blend in the whipped topping and food coloring. Gently fold in the cookies, then spread in pie crust. Chill for several hours before serving. Garnish with additional Grasshopper cookies if desired.

Note: In hindsight, I could have just used the Grasshopper cookies to make the crumbs for the pie crust, but I wasn't sure how the "frosting" on the cookies would affect the recipe. You could also probably use Oreos as well. 

This wasn't very "minty" tasting, (adding some mint extract would help with that), nor very green, and we'll probably stick with our Cherry Pie version, but it was a very delicious dessert! And it's nice to know that we can experiment with different types of cookies in our cream cheese/whipped cream concoctions.