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A homemade graham cracker crust recipe for baked pies and no bake pies is the best graham cracker crust you’ve ever had! NEVER buy a store bought crust again – this one is easy and tastes SO MUCH BETTER!
Easy Crust Recipe for Pie
Graham cracker pie crust is one of my favorite pie crusts. I don’t think I can choose an absolute favorite, because I love all of them too much. But a good graham cracker crust is a must have in your baking arsenal. So many pies can be made to pair with the graham cracker flavor because it’s so versatile. You can fill it with creamy s’mores chocolate pudding, no bake cheesecake, or anything you want.
Can you buy a store bought crust? Yes. But homemade tastes so much better and it stands up to pre-baking or baking better than the store-bought crusts.
This easy graham cracker crust recipe works without baking OR baked and it works with baked pies, like chocolate chess pie.
4 Ingredients Needed
- Graham Crackers: You have two different options when starting with graham crackers: whole and crumbs. One is cheaper, one is easier. Should you buy whole graham crackers? Or crumbs? Use what you prefer.
- BROWN SUGAR: 99% of recipes you see use granulated sugar. That’s fine, you can use that if you want. I like using brown sugar. Brown sugar is my favorite kind of sugar, and graham crackers are very brown sugary. It fits.
- BUTTER: I used unsalted butter in all my recipes, but you can substitute salted if you need too. You won’t notice a huge difference.
- Cinnamon gives the crust a little secret flavor that goes with just about everything. Adding some spices gives so much flavor! But, if you’re not a cinnamon person, you can leave it out.
How to make a Graham Cracker Crust from scratch
- Grind: grind or crush your crumbs. You can use a food processor or crush with a rolling pin in a plastic bag. Both turn out the same – so use what’s easiest.
- Mix: stir the crumbs with sugar, cinnamon and melted butter
- Press: press crumb mixture into pie plate. A secret to the perfect graham cracker or cookie crust is compacting the crumbs. You need to really, really compact them. I use the bottom of a glass for the bottom of the pan. Press it good!
- Chill in fridge at least 10 minutes then use in your pie recipe!
Mixing Tip
I mix all my crumb crusts with a FORK. I like how a fork works for mixing together the crumbs, and then again when adding the butter. It makes it more crumbly somehow.
It’s the texture of very coarse sand. You pour this mixture into a 9″ pie plate. Make sure you measure your plate. 9″ is standard, and I think this would even do well in a 9 1/2″ pie plate. But anything over (or under) that and you need to edit the recipe.
How to use your crust
- No Bake Pie: Chill the crust for at least one hour before filling with your no-bake filling. Chill according to the recipe directions, then cut and serve. The crust is semi-crunchy and perfectly sweet. It may crumble a little more on cutting than the baked version, but it’ll hold together nicely. Perfect with no bake cheesecake!
- No Bake Filling Pie with crunchier crust: Bake the crust for 10 minutes at 325°F. Let it cool completely, then fill and chill according to the recipe directions. A baked graham cracker crust will be more crunchy and be less crumbly, but you have to use your oven.
- Baked Pie: Fill it with your liquid/baked pie filling and bake the pie as directed in the recipe you’re using. Perfect with chocolate chess pie!
Either way you make it, this graham cracker crust is the best base for your pies. It’s easy, comes together in mere minutes, and tastes way better than packaged.
Tip From Dorothy
Expert Tips
- Use real butter for best results. Butter substitutes and low fat butter will cause the recipe to be oily.
- Remember that 3 graham cracker sheets = approximately 1/2 cup crumbs.
- This recipe is written for a 9-inch pie plate. It’s a thick pie crust. Anything smaller and it’ll be too thick, so either make two or use a portion of the crumbs.
- If making a cheesecake you can use a springform pan but it won’t go all the way up the sides.
- When this pie is made for a no bake pie it can be hard to slice the first piece. After that the pieces will come out easy.
- Use any kind of filling for this pie, like coconut cream, banana, peanut butter, or lemon.
FAQ
No – with this recipe you can just fill it unbaked.
If you don’t have graham crackers, you can substitute digestive biscuits or any other simple cookie. Graham crackers aren’t very sweet, which is why we add sugar, so be mindful when substituting other cookies.
You can use granulated sugar if you prefer in equal amount of the brown sugar called for.
I’m not sure if graham crackers themselves are vegan but if they are you can substitute vegan butter sticks for the regular butter.
Yes! Cinnamon graham crackers or chocolate graham crackers would be fantastic with this same recipe.
Perfect Graham Cracker Crust Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (154g) graham cracker crumbs (from about 9 whole graham crackers/18 squares)
- ¼ cup (50g) packed brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon optional
- Pinch of salt
- 7 tablespoons (99g) unsalted butter melted
Instructions
- If you’re using whole graham crackers, finely crush them in a food processor or place them in a ziploc bag and roll with a rolling pin.
- Stir graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl. Add melted butter and stir with a fork.
- Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9” pie plate. Press hard to compact. You can use a glass to press the bottom, but use your fingers to press the sides.
- To make a no-bake pie: Chill pie crust for at least one hour before filling. Cover if chilling longer. Make pie as directed.
- To make a baked graham crust: Preheat oven to 325°. Bake crust for 10 minutes, until it just starts to brown. Cool completely before filling.
- To make a baked pie: Preheat oven to 325°. Bake crust for 10 minutes. Fill with pie filling and bake according to recipe directions.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
- Use real butter for best results. Butter substitutes and low fat butter will cause the recipe to be oily.
- Remember that 3 graham cracker sheets = approximately 1/2 cup crumbs.
- When this pie is made for a no bake pie it can be hard to slice the first piece. After that the pieces will come out easy.
My husband’s favorite pie is chocolate cream in a graham cracker crust. I think the only difference between my crust and yours is that I use 10 sheets of crackers. We too like a thicker crust. 🙂
I never buy crumbs because I have a 2yr old so there are always graham crackers in the house. Always. Or else I’m in trouble with her. haha I use my food processor now but before I had one, my husband crushed them. We did the ziploc bag but instead of a rolling pin, he’d sit there and crush them with his hands. I think it was like a stress ball to him. lol
I am all about the pie crust too – I love them all but if I really had to choose, graham cracker would be the winner. Just like this recipe. I love the brown sugar and cinnamon in here. Such an awesome tutorial Dorothy – pinned 🙂
I am always making pies with graham cracker crust so I definitely need to try this. If you say its perfect, I think its perfect!
I love a good biscuit pie crust. Absolutely delicious, just a little different over here since we don’t get the crackers. We use digestive biscuits (cookies).
Also, I was signed up for emails, but not getting them anymore. Any idea what’s happening, or changed provider?
I’m sure it would be a very similar recipe – if I remember correctly those biscuits are similar to graham crackers (not too sweet). Emails…that’s so strange. I have you on the list still, Daily emails, with the same email as on your comment. I unsubscribed you and then just re-added you. Let me know if you don’t get an email today or tomorrow!
I know, very strange. I even unsubbed and resubbed a while back because of it – no joy. I think I was subbed by Feedburner a while back, then changed to the WordPress method, but the notify of new posts button under the comment form has gone so maybe it’s that? What list do you have me on? I added myself to the mad Mimi link today. I’m hoping that’ll correct it now. 🙂
I also love to make my own Graham Cracker crust . I use Cinnamon Graham Crackers everyone loves my crust. I will try your measurements they sound a bit better than mine. I use 1 cup of Grahams to 1/4 cup of butter.
Cinnamon Graham Crackers – such a great idea! Thanks Judy!
This really is the perfect graham cracker crust! I make mine the same way and always use extra cinnamon, because that’s the best!
Graham cracker crusts are my favorite!! That and an oreo crust 🙂 Your crust is the perfect one – super thick and even throughout; I love that! And a fantastic tutorial! Hope you are having a great week Dorothy! 🙂
Great images! Love these! And love the tutorial and while I’m not as big of a crust fan as you are, if I’m going to have it, graham cracker crust is the way to go! pinned
I’m totally with you that making your own graham cracker crust is so much better than buying one at the store. I’ve never actually seen or looked for the crushed graham crackers before. I’m going to have to see if my store has them. Although I’m pretty sure that I will stick with whole graham crackers, because I secretly like to use the food processor to crush them all. Ha! Thanks for sharing.
Oh I SO needed this! I love a good graham crust (sometimes without a filling…judge me) but I always buy it because I don’t know how to make it as well. I <3 this. Pinned!
Okay, so I’m obsessed with graham cracker crust. And I totally agree about the brown sugar because it caramelizes the crust a bit and is so good! The only other thing I like to do is melt white chocolate or peanut butter chips into the crust. It adds a little more dimension for certain recipes.
Thanks for this tutorial! That’s a very pretty end result. 🙂
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