After taking a break for the month of May, Recipe Swap is back for the month of June.
When Christianna had sent out the mail with the swap recipe of a mint pie, I knew instantly what I wanted to make. My friend has this super simple dessert recipe. She takes store bought shortbread crust and puts it in a pie dish and fills it with black cherry yogurt and freezes it till set. And that’s it. Another friend tried this recipe and got rave reviews. So I really wanted to try it. And I guess it fit well with the swap theme.
Since June is supposed to be the “watch what I eat” month- I decided I will make the shortbread crust at home rather than use a store bought one, having full control on what goes in the food I eat. I found a whole wheat shortbread crust recipe here.
But things did not go as planned.
For one I did not find black cherry yogurt in the store, which was not a big deal. I just decided to use some other flavor of yogurt.
The second problem I faced was all due to my stupidity. After chilling, shaping and lining the shortbread crust to fit my mini tart pan, I have no idea why but I did not blind bake them with pie weights on top. I really don’t know why I did that. I always line my tart/pie shells with parchment and beans on top while blind baking it. I am well aware that the pie shells swell up and they need pie weights to keep them down to retain the shape. But I don’t know where my mind was and just thought the dough would stay as is and form perfect shells. Like I said I don’t know where my mind was. So instead of tart shells I got shortbread cookies. Which would not have been bad but they did not fit with the theme for the swap.
I thought a little- I did not want to start with a fresh dough and keep the cookies- it is the “watch-what-I-eat” month after all, and I can’t have so many sweets roaming around. So, I thought I will just make crumbs of the cookies and use them to make another crust. Just one big crust this time. I am telling you my mind was all over the place. I managed to get this before it went into the oven.
But once out of the oven and during my efforts to remove it, what would you know it broke into pieces. I was left with shortbread crust crumbs. Once again back to the drawing board.
Searching for things to do I saw this (a grasshopper pie) and thought I could use the crumbs of the crust to make a chocolate cookie and use it for the grasshopper pie. For the cookie I just mixed the crumbs with some cocoa and egg and a little sugar and baked them at 350 F. The cookies that came out were pretty good. But somehow the marshmallow filling did not work for me- with the marshmallow setting rock hard before I could mix it with the whipped cream. And that’s when I gave up on the pie. It just wasn’t happening!
So I had whole wheat chocolate cookies on the counter. Whipped cream. Creme de menthe chips. And voila! I decided I could make a shake.
And that’s what I did.
Into the blender, went the cookies, the creme de menthe chips, the whipped cream and some milk and ice.
And blend I did. Channeling all that frustration into the blender.
So from a frozen yogurt pie I ended up with a creme de menthe chocolate shake! Who said blogging would be easy! And well, despite of all the failures (and the frustration along with it) that I encountered while doing this swap, I finally managed to get something that I liked.
Of course this goes against my whole diet control for the month of June philosophy but then that’s where these shot glasses come in handy. Just a shot of the goody stuff and you get your sweet craving but do not go overboard with it.
There is no recipe as such for this, but I have tried to give you a fair idea of how to make your own creme de menthe shake shots!
CREME DE MENTHE CHOCOLATE SHAKE SHOTS
In a blender, add some chocolate cookies, creme de menthe chips, some whipped cream (I know not healthy right but it tastes great!), ice cubes, dash of milk and for extra measure some kahlua or irish creme! Blend it till smooth. Serve in shot glasses with some whipped cream on top and creme de menthe chips.
Enjoy and check out the other swappers take on the mint pie recipe!
Way to hang in there through the bumps; I never admit what I’m making until it’s complete because there is a good chance I end up with something different than I started with. It’s also a sign if a good cook and a quick thinker! Good swap.
I love that you turned a flop into a fabulous recipe! Sometimes, the best things are invented in such situations. And while I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate and mint, these somehow look amazing. And summery. And refreshing! I want to try them. 🙂
I always drool whenever I smell creme de menthe – it has such a wonderful flavour and smell. Those look absolutely wonderful, Shumaila :D. Great swap :). I can’t deal with failure of any sort…
This is an awesome post. I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one that has trials in the kitchen!
This is a whole new way to turn lemons into lemonade. I love the shake version as well in the hot months!
Well for such complete failure this turned out completely gorgeous! BTW, Ben & Jerry’s does a black cherry with choc chunks yogurt call Cherry Garcia if you’re ever on the hunt again; I love the stuff!
Now this is an awesome blogging story! You really hung in there with the pie for much, much longer than I would have! It’s a good thing you did, too, cause your little shakes look scrumptious!
Hahha! Yes… the recipe swap fail. I’ve had two, and they are angering, demoralizing, confusing, and all-around irritating. So glad you pulled the nose up on this one and made it back out of the dive. 🙂
some recipes just aren’t meant to be. and then they lead to awesome creations like this! great job on staying strong and getting an awesome swap creation out of it all.
these photos are stunning and the shake looks scrumptious!
Hey it’s a fail that turned into a huge success so it’s all good. I mean look at this little shots of happiness. Great take on the swap, even if it wasn’t the original plan. We all got sick here so I was scrambling last minute to make mine. I should not procrastinate. lol
something amazing came out of that! i would have just chucked everything in the freezer to think about it later:) great going.
The shake looks amazing and refreshing ! I love the combination of brown and green. Thanks for submitting your photo to DMBLGiT July.