grasshopper pie.

If you like mint chocolate chip ice cream, you will *die* for this pie.

It’s creamy. It’s minty. It’s decadent and sinful, light and refreshing – all rolled into one. It’s served frozen and drizzled in warm homemade fudge sauce.

{It’s pure perfection}

And I’m especially loving it for the holidays, thanks to its festive green hue. It’s a bit of a process to make, but so totally worth it. Here’s how it all goes down:  You start with your Oreo crust, which is just one package of cookies {I actually use Newman’s Own brand} crushed and mixed with melted butter and then pressed into a pie plate. For the filling, get some egg yolks and an egg into your mixer bowl, and whip them until nice and thick. You then add your gelatin and crème de menthe. Next comes the trickiest part of it all, and it’s really not all that tricky – you’ll just need a candy thermometer. Heat some water and sugar until it gets to a certain temperature and then slowly add it to the egg mixture, keeping the mixer going on low speed. Then it’s time for my favorite ingredient of this pie – the marshmallow cream. Add that along with a touch of mint extract and whip it all up together for a couple of minutes. The last piece of the pie, if you will, is to whip a nice amount of cream up and fold it into the mixture. Now, you’re ready to pour it into the pie crust and freeze for at least 6 hours or overnight.

The last touch for this pie that takes it truly over the top is the homemade fudge sauce. You could go without it, really, as the pie on its own is already pure perfection, but the sauce is so easy and so delicious – why not just go for it? Heat some cream and sugar and melt a combination of bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate right into it. A touch of butter, a sprinkle of salt, and you’re there. Less than five minutes, and you just took your already perfect grasshopper pie right into pure, unadulterated chocolatey-mint heaven.

Be sure to check out Tara’s blog for the full recipe!

*Note of caution:  You may have a hard time getting the frozen crust out of your pie plate, as I did. The first piece is the most difficult, and then it gets a little easier. Next time, I may try baking the crust for ten minutes first and letting it cool before filling and see if that helps.