Graham Cracker Crust

Why Use My Recipe

Graham cracker pie crust is one of my favorite pie crusts – 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 anything you want!

• You could buy a store bought crust, but homemade tastes so much better and it stands up to pre-baking or baking better than the store-bought crusts.
• Just 3 ingredients – with options for what you have in your pantry
• Use it for a totally no bake pie or bake it to make it crunchy
• You can use this for a baked pie (like chocolate chess pie) or baked cheesecake
• It’s tried and true and the only graham cracker crust I make!

Ingredient Tips

• Graham Crackers: You have two different options when starting with graham crackers: whole and crumbs. One is cheaper, one is easier. Regardless, buy the name brand – they taste better.
• Sugar: 99% of recipes you see use granulated sugar. I like using brown sugar. Brown sugar is my favorite kind of sugar, and graham crackers are very brown sugary. It fits. But you can use granulated sugar, powdered sugar, OR brown sugar.
• 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.

How to make a Graham Cracker Crust Tips

1. To 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.
2. 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 and incorporates the butter better.
3. Once mixed, it will have the texture of very coarse sand.
4. A secret to the perfect graham cracker or cookie crust is compacting the crumbs. You need to really, really compact them. Start with your hands to get it around the edges of the pie plate and then you can switch to a glass if you want to really compact it.
5. Pan Sizes: This recipe is written for a 9-inch pie plate. It will also work in a 9- or 10-inch springform pan (for cheesecake) or either an 8-inch or 9-inch square pan. You can use it in a 9×13-inch pan but it will be much thinner, so personally, I double it for that size pan.

How to use your crust

• Any no bake pie recipe, like butterscotch pie, no bake pumpkin pie, or no bake cheesecake.
• No Bake 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 with a Key Lime Pie or my classic cheesecake recipe.

How to use a Graham Cracker Crust

• Lime Curd Pie
• No Bake Strawberry Shortcake Pie
• S’mores Pie
• Chocolate Chess Pie
• Banana Pie
• Coconut Cream Pie