This is an old-time favorite dessert recipe that was handed down from Vicki’s mother. There is no baking needed, but does need to freeze for several hours prior to serving. Store leftovers in the freezer and dessert will be just a minute away!
Grasshopper Pie
Ingredients
- 24 Oreo cookies
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 10 oz. Marshmallow Fluff little more than half of a 18 oz. jar
- 1-2 drops green food coloring optional
- 5 Tbsp creme de menthe
- 3/4 tsp peppermint extract
- 2 cup heavy cream whipped
- Dark chocolate shavings for topping
Instructions
- Crush the cookies using a food processor.
- Mix cookie crumbs with butter and press into a 9 inch pie pan.
- In a large bowl, mix Marshmallow Fluff with food coloring, creme de menthe, and peppermint extract.
- Fold in whipped cream.
- Pour into pie pan and freeze for 6 - 8 hours. Before serving, top with chocolate shavings.
Notes
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Need a quick dessert that isn’t too sweet or too filling after a fabulous meal? This crumble is just the thing!
Apple, Berry, & Chocolate Crumble
Equipment
- 6 - 1/2 cup ramekins
Ingredients
- 2 Granny Smith apples peeled and diced
- 10 ounces fresh berries such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 3/4 cup flour
- 5 ½ Tbsp unsalted butter additional for the top of crumble
- 1/8 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/4 cup hard packed brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp grated dark chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Place apples and berries in a bowl and mix with the sugar. Fill the ramekins halfway with the sweetened fruit.
- Using a food processor or a bowl and pastry cutter, add all the remaining ingredients, except the chocolate.
- Once combined, add the chocolate to the crumble mix and place on top of the fruit.
- Place a small pat of butter on top of each crumble and bake for 30 minutes until fruit bubbles.
- Serve alone or with whipped cream or ice cream.
This pie’s chocolate crust truly elevates the flavor of pumpkin pie. Canned pumpkin is usually available all year, so make this pie for your simple celebration any time you choose! See make ahead directions below.
Pumpkin Pie with Chocolate Crust
Ingredients
- 8 ounces chocolate wafer cookies 33 cookies
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 15 ounces canned pure pumpkin
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 3 eggs large
- whipped Cream optional topping
- chocolate shavings optional topping
Instructions
- For crust ...Preheat oven to 350°
- In a food processor, pulse the cookies until finely ground.
- Transfer to a medium bowl and add the butter and sugar. Mix until well combined.
- Press into a 9-inch pie plate (using the back of a small measuring cup helps form a perfect crust).
- Bake the crust for 8-10 minutes, until set.
- Transfer to a rack and let cool prior to filling.
- For the filling ... Purée pumpkin in food processor.
- Mix in next 6 ingredients.
- Gradually add cream, processing just until blended.
- Pour filling into crust.
- Bake in 350° oven for about one hour, or until center is set.
- Cool completely on rack.
- Top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings if desired.
Notes
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This pie has a crunchy chocolate base, creamy center and awesome topping. You can make it days in advance, keep refrigerated, and serve when ready.
Chocolate, Berry and Cream Cheese Pie
Ingredients
- Pie crust premade or your own recipe
- 1/2 bar unsweetened baking chocolate
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream divided
- 1 Tbsp butter softened
- Splash of spiced rum optional
- Pinch sugar
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- Vanilla extract splash
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- Strawberries cut in half
- Blueberries
- 1 ounce chocolate milk, dark, or white
Instructions
- Place pie crust in a pretty pie pan and make according to directions. Cool.
Ganache:
- Chop chocolate into small pieces and place in a medium bowl.
- In a small saucepan, bring 1/4 cup heavy cream to a boil and immediately pour over the chocolate.
- Add butter and optional rum to mixture and whisk until combined. Add a pinch or two of sugar (it should be very bitter).
- Pour ganache onto pie crust and let set (you can put in the freezer while prepping the filling).
Cream Cheese Filling:
- Cut softened cream cheese into small pieces and put in a large bowl with a splash of vanilla extract.
- Sift 1/4 powdered sugar on top of cream cheese and beat until smooth. Add more sifted powdered sugar until desired sweetness is reached.
- Spoon filling into pie and level with spatula.
Topping:
- Starting from the outside of the pie, place strawberries in concentric circles until you reach the middle. Fill in empty spaces with blueberries.
- Cut chocolate into small pieces. Heat 1/4 cup heavy cream to a boil.
- Pour a tablespoon at a time of the hot cream over the chocolate and mix together until it forms a paste.
- Fill a Ziplock bag with chocolate mixture, cut off a bottom corner, drizzle filling over pie. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
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This time of year, cherries are fresh, sweet, and delicious (and on sale!). Pick up a couple of bags the next time you are at the grocery store – one for snacking and one for baking.
Vicki combined two cherry pie recipes to come up with this sweet and tart, and oh so yummy, recipe. We recommend using a pre-made crust.
Double Cherry Pie
Equipment
- Cherry pitter
Ingredients
- 1 pkg Pillsbury Pie Dough These are found in the dairy section of the grocery store
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2 1/2 pound fresh dark cherries pitted
- 1/2 cup dried tart cherries
- 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter cut in small pieces
- 2 Tbsp milk
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- vanilla bean or cinnamon ice cream
Instructions
- Place pie crusts on counter for about 30 minutes.
- Place one pie shell in the bottom of a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.
- Flute edges.
- Place second pie crust on a surface dusted with flour.
- Roll out to make slightly bigger.
- Cut into 12 strips about 3/4 in. each.
- In a large bowl, mix the sugar, cornstarch, salt and spices.
- In a separate bowl, add both types of cherries, lemon juice and vanilla and toss together.
- Add sugar mixture and place filling in pie shell.
- Mound slightly in the middle and dot with butter.
- Arrange strips in a lattice pattern - six on bottom and six woven through. Dough should overlap the pie plate.
- Crimp strips with bottom crust.
- Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar.
- Place on a foil-lined cookie sheet (this will bubble over) and cook for 15 minutes at 425°, reduce heat to 375° and heat for an additional hour.
Notes
Instead of the traditional Mexican desserts, i.e., flan or churros, try this Frozen Key Lime Pie recipe to end your Fiesta on a sweet note. This is an original recipe from one of our favorite chefs, Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. One of the great things about this pie is you can make it days in advance!
Click the link below for Ina’s recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/frozen-key-lime-pie-recipe3/index.html
This pie can be made a month in advance and frozen. The trick is not to bake it. Stop the recipe before the chocolate drizzle and orange sauce and freeze, wrapped in plastic wrap and two plastic grocery bags.
This pie comes with its own pastry recipe. To save time, you can use a pre-made Pillsbury pie crust from the refrigerator section of your grocery store, it just won’t have the orange flavor.
Orange Pastry
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
- 2 – 3 tablespoons cold water
Put all ingredients except water in a food processor with metal blade and pulse until it forms a ball (adding cold water as needed to help it along). Roll pastry on floured board to 2 inches larger than a deep-dish 9-inch pie plate. Ease pastry into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side. Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1 inch from rim of plate. Fold and roll pastry under, even with plate, and flute with fingertips.
Pie Filling
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup corn syrup
- 1 to 2 tablespoons orange liqueur (Grand Marnier or Triple Sec)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup pecan halves
- 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon shortening
Beat sugar, butter, corn syrup, liqueur, salt and eggs until smooth. Stir in pecans and pour into pastry-lined pie plate. The pie is now ready to freeze – wrap the uncooked pie in plastic wrap, cover it in foil, then wrap it in two plastic grocery bags. Put pie in the freezer until the day before you want to serve it. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight and leave it on the counter for a couple of hours before putting in the oven (it needs to be thoroughly defrosted). When ready to bake, cook in a 375 degree oven for 40 – 50 minutes – check on pie to make sure crust is not excessively browning. Cover edge with a 2 – 3 inch wide strip of aluminum foil if it is turning too brown. Cool pie for 15 minutes. Heat chocolate chips and shortening until melted; drizzle over top of pie. Serve with Orange Sauce.
Orange Sauce
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 3/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice
- 2 tablespoons orange liqueur
- 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
Mix sugar and cornstarch in 1-quart saucepan. Stir in orange juice and liqueur. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute, then stir in orange peel.
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One of the secrets to this pie recipe is to use a lot of apples and pile them as high as they will go. This can be made a month or so in advance by freezing the pie before it is baked. Keep the unbaked pie in the freezer until the day before you want to serve it. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight and leave it on the counter for a couple of hours before putting in the oven (it needs to be thoroughly defrosted).
Grandma Anna's Apple Pie
Equipment
- 9" Deep Pie Plate
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour sifted
- 1 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup shortening chilled
- 4-5 Tbsp ice water
- 12 apples Granny Smith are best, peeled and sliced
- 1/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- Fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Crust (or use store bought)
- Put flour, salt and shortening in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse until coarse. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time until dough forms a ball.
- Divide dough in 2 equal balls and chill for an hour (can be made the day before).
- Roll out crusts on a floured surface.
Pie Filling
- Mix together the sugars, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Place apples in a large bowl and pour mixture over apples. Stir until apples are well coated.
- Put one crust in the bottom of a greased 9 inch deep pie dish.
- Put about 1/3 of the apples in the dish.
- Dot with 1/3 of the butter.
- Squeeze lemon juice over apples.
- Repeat twice more.
- Cover the pie with the final crust and press edges together with your fingers. Flute.
- Make 4 small slits in the top of the pie to release steam.
- Freeze your unbaked pie by covering it with plastic wrap, foil and wrapping in two plastic grocery bags.
- Defrost before baking in a 400 degree oven for 55 minutes. Be sure to line the bottom of your oven with aluminum foil because this is one juicy pie.
Notes
