photo by: John Young

Girl Scout Cookie Pies and Parfait

We all love Girl Scout cookies, right? So this is a wonderful time of year when sweet shining faces appear at our doors with boxes of goodness wrapped in community love.

I have some friends who work for the Girl Scouts, and they had the great idea to use some cookies in a recipe, rather than sitting down and eating the entire box in one sitting, which is my usual game plan. I decided their plan had merit, and went to work creating a dessert worthy of the cookies.

Historically, my favorite cookies were called Do Si Do’s, but they’re now called Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies, which I guess is a lot more descriptive. Anyway, I had three boxes of these beauties and knew I’d start with them.

Graham cracker crusts are easy and virtually fool-proof, and Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies will make a crumbly crust just like graham crackers, and so an idea was born. I considered my options and couldn’t decide between pie and parfaits, so I made both. Same ingredients, different application.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies are not the only peanut butter cookie the Girl Scouts produce. There is also the amazing Tagalong, now known as the Peanut Butter Patty. I happened to have a box of those as well, so I decided to work them into the mix because nothing goes better with peanut butter than chocolate.

Girl Scout Cookie Pie and Parfait

For the crust:
2 sleeves of Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies
4 tablespoons melted butter

Run the cookies through the food processor until they’re well-pulverized into a sandy texture. Then add the butter and pulse a few times to combine until the mixture clumps together.

Preheat your oven to 350 F. I used individual tartlet pans but this recipe will make an 8-inch pie and then some. Press into the bottom of the pie pan(s) and bake for about 10 minutes until the crust gets more solid and starts to brown just a tiny bit.

For the filling
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
5 Peanut Butter Patties, broken into pieces
1 cup maple whipped cream (recipe below)

In a bowl, combine the cream cheese, peanut butter and confectioner’s sugar, and mix on medium speed to combine thoroughly.

Fold in the whipped cream and cookie pieces. Set aside.

For the maple whipped cream
1/8 teaspoon maple flavoring (extract)
1 pint whipping cream

Whip on medium speed until soft peaks form.

For pies or tarts, let the crust cool and then load in the filling. Top with extra Peanut Butter Patties, a little of the graham cracker mixture, peanuts and a dollop of maple whipped cream.

For parfaits, there is no need to heat the oven. Just load some of the graham cracker mixture into the bottom of the glass, and layer in filling, cookies, peanuts and finish with a little of everything on top.

These certainly dress up the peanut butter cookies, though they really need no added glory; they are marvelous on their own. But since this is easy to make and requires little to no baking, it is fun to assemble with children and is a real hit with grown-ups and kids alike.