How To Make Classic Grasshopper Pie

There are few pairings quite as complementary as chocolate and mint, making it the basis for famous drinks, shakes, and, perhaps most gloriously, this delectable and delightfully retro grasshopper pie.

What makes a grasshopper a grasshopper? Mint and chocolate liqueurs are folded into an airy, creamy mousse filling and set in a chocolate cookie crust. The whole thing is topped with more whipped cream and chocolate sauce and then chilled before it’s served as a playful dessert that tastes — and smells! — just as good as it looks.

Grasshopper pie is a type of chiffon pie. Chiffon pies are made with whipped eggs and whipped cream folded together into an airy mousse, and often set with gelatin. Each bite is feather-light, delivering a puff of mint and chocolate flavor that melts in your mouth bite after bite.

Reportedly invented in the 1920s by a famous Los Angeles pie maker, chiffon pies have been influenced greatly by convenience foods, so much so that modern versions typically take advantage of pudding mix and whipped cream products, like Cool Whip. For our version, we’re going back the original technique, starting with a simple mousse-like filling made from scratch.

Grasshopper pie is based on the flavors of a beloved classic cocktail, the Grasshopper. The Grasshopper cocktail — a mixture of equal parts crème de menthe, white crème de cacao, and heavy cream — was created by bartender Philibert Guichet in New York City in 1910. The story behind the cocktail’s —and later the pie’s — name is probably what you guessed. The color says it all.

The lore and legend: The Weird History of the Grasshopper

Baking a buttery chocolate cookie crust: Crushed chocolate cookies are mixed with a little butter and sugar, pressed into a pie pan, and baked until just set, about 10 minutes. This is the only baking you’ll need to do for the recipe. Pressed for time or oven space? A pre-made chocolate cookie crust can be purchased and used instead.

Working with gelatin: Powdered gelatin is used to set this gloriously creamy mousse. The gelatin must be hydrated or bloomed before it can be melted and folded into the mousse. Use the two liqueurs called for here to bloom the gelatin and flavor the mousse.

Tempering the egg yolk mixture: While the gelatin blooms, you’ll whip up some whipped cream and sugar and an egg yolk and sugar mixture. Once the gelatin is bloomed, melt it over a double boiler (a bowl set over a small pot of boiling water). While the gelatin is still warm and not yet set, you want to slowly add some of the egg yolk mixture to the gelatin in a move called “tempering.” Tempering allows you to slowly warm the egg yolk mixture with the gelatin without cooking the yolks. Then you return the egg yolk mixture back to the double boiler until it reaches 160°F and coats the back of a spoon.

Folding in whipped cream: Cool the egg-gelatin mixture slightly before folding in whipped cream. You want the egg-gelatin mixture to cool off so it doesn’t “melt” the whipped cream and lose the aeration. Now, if the mixture gets too cool, it will start to seem sticky and will leave a ropey texture in the filling rather than being smooth. So cool the egg-gelatin mixture for just five minutes before folding into the whipped cream.

Pouring the filling into the crust and chilling: Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Refrigerate for two hours or until the pie is set. You can also make the pie and refrigerate for up to a day in advance.