Recipe Background
Pattie's Peppermint Pie boasts a cool, creamy filling and a chocolatey crust, perfect for snowy day indulgence.
Back in the day, before any hint of my influencer life, I found myself stumbling through a blizzard with my college roommate, Deena. We made the grand decision of having a bake-off during our first true snowstorm as off-campus dwellers. Armed with a pack of chocolate wafer cookies and a little too much marshmallow creme, we were ready. It became a night of whimsy and peppermint-inspired dreams that ended with us creating a dessert that screamed winter wonderland. That day we learned that slapping together ingredients needed a tad more finesse after accidentally doubling the peppermint extract, turning our kitchen into what smelled like a candy cane factory.
With a hint of chaos in the air, we discovered the art of chilling our mixer bowls before whipping the cream. A little trick that made our lives easier and our whipped cream, perfection. What started as a simple wafer-cookie crust evolved into something magical. Mixing in a splash of melted butter until the mixture looked like wet sand was therapeutic. We giggled as we decorated it with crushed peppermint candies, loving every speck of pink dust that landed on the counter. That spontaneous baking fest became a culinary turning point, sparking my love for merging unexpected flavors.
Freezing the pie until firm wasn’t just practical—it made our peppermint creation feel like biting into a winter breeze. It became a tradition, our go-to dessert whenever a surprise snow day hit. Years later, telling this story still brings a smile, remembering two ambitious college roommates, a blizzard, and the birth of Pattie's Peppermint Pie.
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 30 chocolate wafer cookies
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
For the filling:
- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese room temperature
- 1 cup marshmallow creme
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 cup heavy cream chilled
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 8 drops red food coloring optional
- 8 hard peppermint candies crushed
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In the container of a food processor, add the chocolate wafers and cover the processor.
- Process the wafers until finely ground, about 30 seconds.
- Add the melted butter, 1 tablespoon of the granulated sugar, and the salt to the ground wafers and process until the mixture is the consistency of wet sand, about five 1-second pulses.
- In an ungreased 9-inch tart pan, evenly press the wafer mixture into the bottom and up the sides and transfer the tart pan onto a rimmed baking sheet.
- Bake until the crust is firm and appears dry, about 10 minutes.
- Transfer the baked crust from the oven to a wire rack and allow it to cool completely, about 15 minutes.
- In a large bowl, add the cream cheese and the marshmallow creme and using an electric handheld mixer on medium speed, beat until smooth, about 1 minute 30 seconds.
- With the mixer speed decreased to low, add the peppermint extract to the cream cheese mixture and beat until fully combined, about 15 seconds. Set it aside.
- In a separate large bowl, add the heavy cream, the remaining granulated sugar, and the red food coloring and using clean beaters on the electric handheld mixer on medium-high speed, beat until stiff peaks form, about 1 minute 30 seconds.
- Add the heavy cream mixture to the cream cheese mixture and fold until just combined.
- Evenly add the filling mixture to the cooled crust.
- Transfer the pie to the freezer until the filling mixture is firm, about 2 hours.
- Transfer the pie from the freezer and decorate the top of the pie with the crushed peppermint candies.
- Slice and serve.
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