Mini Grasshopper Pies

MINI GRASSHOPPER PIES

(from Cuisine magazine, Issue 85 February 2011, pg. 49)

Make these up do three days in advance and keep refrigerated.  Makes 24 mini pies.  Total time: 1 hour + chilling

Ingredients

For the crust, process:

30 mint fudge crème cookies (such as Nabisco Oreos)
1 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

For the filling, steep:

2 herbal mint tea bags
1 cup heavy cream, divided

Sprinkle:

1 ¼ tsp unsweetened gelatin

3 Tbsp crème de menthe
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp sugar

Garnish:

Chocolate shavings

 

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350˚F.  Line mini muffin pans with liners.  Set a metal bowl over a saucepan filled with 1 inch of water for double boiler.  (Don’t let bowl touch water.)

For the crust, process cookies in a food processor until mixture holds together; add butter and pulse until paste-like.  Press 2 tsp crumb mixture into bottom and up sides of each liner.  Bake crusts 5 minutes, then cool; set aside.

For the filling, steep tea bags in ½ cup cream in prepared double boiler over medium-low heat, 15 minutes.  Squeeze cream from tea bags and discard bags.

 

Beat remaining ½ cup cream in a bowl to stiff peaks; cover and refrigerate.

Sprinkle gelatin over crème de menthe in a small bowl; set aside 5 minutes.

Whisk together egg yolks and sugar in a separate bowl; set aside.  Prepare ice water bath.

Add gelatin mixture to steeped cream in double boiler and whisk to combine.  When mixture steams, slowly whisk it into yolk mixture to temper.  Return yolk-cream mixture to double boiler and cook, whisking occasionally, until it registers 150˚F on an instant-read thermometer, 1-2 minutes.

Transfer bowl to ice water bath; whisk mixture constantly until cool and consistency of thin pudding, about 1 minute.

Fold chilled whipped cream into mint mixture a third at a time.  Transfer filling to a piping bag fitted with a small star-shaped tip.  Pipe filling into crusts, cover, and chill at least 1 hour or overnight.

Garnish with shaved chocolate.