[NO-BAKE] CREME de MENTHE GRASSHOPPER PIE 13 MAY 2023
OREO™ cookies are BOGOs this week, so Neal brought home two packages of ORIGINAL and two packages of GOLDEN OREOs™. Did you know there are LEMON-flavored OREOs™, too? Perhaps a [NO-BAKE] LEMON OREO™ CAKE BATTER ICE CREAM PIE is in our future. But I digress . . . For today's baking project, how 'bout a GRASSHOPPER PIE in an ORIGINAL OREO™ cookie crust? Neal brought home this crème de menthe (because de Kuyper is a good Dutch name, of course). The pulsing station for the CRUST . . . I again used a 9" cake pan; I haven't gotten around to buying a deep-dish pie pan yet, and may not bother to do so. I used the correct amount of butter this time, so the crust mixture was better than the previous one . . . I sprayed the pan AND the parchment paper, even tho this was NOT going into the freezer . . . Mixing station for whipping cream . . . Mixing station for batter . . . I'd thought to add some ground-up chocolate chipes, to add a bit o' texture; I added Andes™ crème de menthe baking chips instead. I was surprised by how GREEN the crème de menthe was; it made me think of Absinthe, also known as The Green Fairy; I was sure I wouldn't need to add any food coloring to this mixture. After folding together the whipped cream and the batter, folding the filling into the crust . . . You can see what a nice light green color the filling mixture is . . . Into the refrigerator . . . I made a second batch of whipping cream for the topping, also with some ground-up Andes™ crème de menthe baking chips . . . And into the refrigerator for two hours at least . . . I had to put up the barrier again to keep Emmie out of the kitchen; she waited for me on the couch, ever vigilant . . . One of the many projects we did today (Neal installed a new dog door; I repotted some new Christmas cacti), was trimming Emmie's ear feathers. Too much, I fear, but they'll grow back. TWO HOURS LATER . . . Even tho this wasn't a frozen pie, I still had to immerse the pan into hot water to get the crust to loosen. I think the taste of the cream cheese is somewhat overwhelming; perhaps a bit of mint extract will cover that. The texture was good; overall, I think it's a keeper. THE NEXT DAY . . . The pie "set" and looked like this . . .
THE [MODIFIED] RECIPE I USED
* For a stronger mint flavor, add mint extract. * For a brighter green color, add green food coloring. * For a sweeter pie, top with STABILIZED WHIPPED CREAM.

LEMON LOAF WITH LEMON GLAZE HERE