It is officially spring. Now we can wear flip-flops and pastels and sip iced coffee as we procrastinate on Healy Lawn. With the arrival of the season also comes the arrival of an array of fresh produce and ingredients. Yet even with the farmers’ markets teeming with new products, there is one thing above everything else that I’ve been craving: Girl Scout cookies.
Girl Scout cookies are the antithesis of what this column is meant to be about. Originally, I decided that every other week I would choose a seasonal ingredient, write a personal anecdote about it and then include a relevant recipe. Since last fall, I have written about everything from tomatoes to carrots to kale in order to reveal the versatility and deliciousness of cooking or baking with fresh produce. How, then, could I write about Girl Scout cookies when they are not only not fresh, but also mass-produced, packaged goods, even if they’re sold for a good cause by girls wearing vests covered in badges and pins?
The answer is simple enough: because they are in fact versatile and delicious. Despite being made in commercial bakeries, Girl Scout cookies are beloved by many who eagerly await the day when their sister, cousin, niece, neighbor or even the child they babysit touts an order form and asks for a count of what kind and how many boxes of cookies to order. The peanut butter filling and chocolate coating of Tagalongs make them a favorite for some. For others, the combination of caramel, chocolate and coconut places Samoas as the superior cookie. Preferring the simple, I was always a fan of more traditional shortbread Trefoils. Arguably, though, the most popular cookies are Thin Mints. Mint-flavored wafers dipped in a thin layer of chocolate, they’re a dessert and a breath freshener in one.
In an attempt to keep some of the integrity of this column, I decided that this week’s recipe would include Girl Scout cookies and a hint of the season: mint. While this recipe for grasshopper pie does not actually call for fresh mint, make like Paula Deen and proclaim it as the vegetable component of the dish and use it as a garnish. The appearance of something fresh on the pie will help you forget, at least briefly, how very, very far from the market it came to appear on the table.
Easy Mint Grasshopper Pie
Ingredients
16 thin mint cookies
4 tbsp. butter
3/4 cup milk
24 large marshmallows
1/4 cup creme de menthe liqueur
2 Tbsp. creme de cacao
1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
1. Using a food processor, pulse cookies into crumbs. Combine crumbs with butter.
2. Pat into bottom and sides of a nine- to 10-inch pie dish. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
3. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat the milk to a light simmer. Do not allow to boil.
4. Add marshmallows and heat slowly until melted. Remove from heat and cool.
5. Add creme de menthe and creme de cacao, and mix well. Fold in whipped cream. Pour into chilled pie shell. Freeze.
6. Serve with additional dollop of whipped cream and sprigs of fresh mint
Bethany Imondi is a junior in the College. MARKET TO TABLE appears every other Friday in the guide.
