How did we come to find this Grasshopper Dessert recipe? Recently my mom took all of us girls to a local book sale at our local library. We absolutely love these sales as you can find some real gems hidden away among the stacks and stacks of random material. Usually, there are so many children’s books that we are fond of and want to own, but this time it was a bit difficult because we are past the picture books and there were not too many good finds in the chapter book area. But as we were determined to spend our money, even though our mom always tells us not to spend just because we can, we kept up our hunt. And then my mom found the cookbook section! We thought they were going to be a dollar each, but when we checked out, those sweet ladies only charged us 25 cents! If I would have known that, I think we would have filled the car!
Right away when we got home, my sister and I started looking through them and picking out recipes that we wanted to try. The first one on my list was these Grasshopper Dessert Squares. This particular book is a bit hard to follow for kids because they are referring to their Pampered Chef cooking line, and we don’t have any of those, but with the help of my mom, we were able to figure out what they meant.
Plan Ahead for Grasshopper Dessert Squares
I knew that this recipe needed some time in the freezer, so first thing after breakfast I started in on my cooking adventure. The hardest part was not eating all of the cookies as I was making the crust! I could have eaten the entire sleeve, but luckily we got way more from the store than we needed because it calls for 21 cookies and we didn’t know how many were in one package. (I think my mom bought an extra package also because my Dad commonly raids the pantry and can eat A LOT of cookies all at once. There have been some ruined cooking plans in the past because of these occurrences.)
We decided to use our Ninja food processor, but I am sure if you didn’t have one, or didn’t want the extra dishes, you could put these into a gallon bag and pound away to make the crumbles. After adding the butter, I did have some difficulty trying to press the cookie mixture into the bottom of the pan. It was so sticky! My mom suggested I spray my fingers with cooking oil, but even that didn’t really work. So we decided to use a spatula with oil on it and it was the perfect fix.
While that was cooking, we waited for the ice cream to get soft enough to mix. Even in the heat of summer, this took longer than I anticipated. The recipe says to leave it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, but we ended up putting it on the counter for about half an hour with a plate under it before it was ready to mix with the cool whip.
My favorite color is turquoise, but mint green is right behind it. I thought the 4 drops of food coloring was a perfect amount. The color was so pretty! I guess this is why its called Grasshopper Dessert.
The Results?
I put my pan in the freezer and checked on it a few times. One silly mistake was that I didn’t notice it was a bit tilted, so one side of my pan was much thicker than the other. It didn’t change the result, however, and I served myself one of the thickest pieces, so I got more!
The first piece is always the hardest to get out of the pan, but it still looked pretty when I added the whipped topping and half a cookie. Mom didn’t buy any mint leaves, but in the end, I don’t think they were needed. Once I started eating, I didn’t care what it looked like! I highly recommend these Grasshopper Dessert Squares.
Grasshopper Mint Dessert Squares Kids Can Make
Ingredients
- 21 Fudge Mint Cookies (1 1/4 cups finely chopped)
- 1 Tablespoon butter or margarine, melted
- 1 Quart vanilla ice cream
- 1 Container (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided
- 1/4 Teaspoon peppermint extract
- 4 Drops green food coloring (optional)
- Additional fudge mint cookies, cut in half (optional
- Fresh mint leaves (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Finely chop cookies using either a food processor or smashing in a gallon bag; place in a mixing bowl. Add butter and mix well. Press the crumb mixture onto the bottom of 8x8 baking dish. Bake 8 minutes, and cool completely.
- Place ice cream on a plate on the counter to soften. Keep your eye on it, as it just needs to be soft enough to mix.
- Chill your mixing bowl in the freezer, and when the crumb bottom is cool, place in freezer also.
- Scoop ice cream into the chilled mixing bowl, and gently stir in 2 cups of the whipped topping, peppermint extract and food coloring. Spread ice cream mixture evenly over cold crust. Cover with aluminum foil and freeze 6 hours or overnight.
- When ready to serve, let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. You can use a piping bag to put on some extra whipped topping, or just spoon a bit on the top with half of a cookie and mint leaves if desired.
Notes
Adapted From Delightful Desserts: From Easy to Elegant by the Pampered Chef