This easy graham cracker crust for pies, bars, and cheesecakes only needs 3 ingredients. Substitute cookie crumbs for a fun variation, and either type can be baked or chilled as needed. Match your crust base to your filling for fun flavor combinations!
Why this recipe works
- An easy and versatile crust that needs only 3 ingredients
- You can blind-bake a graham cracker crust or make a chilled no-bake crust depending on your needs
- Substitute cookies for the graham crackers to make a cookie crumb crust
Well, that's the way the cookie crumbles
What is this, a statement of hopelessness? Futility? Nay, gentle reader, I say nay! This is a statement of hopefulness, of goodness and light, because now we have a way to make a wonderful crust for pies, bars, and cheesecakes.
And we get to beat the hell out of graham crackers and/or cookies in the process!
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What you need
The ingredients for a graham cracker crust recipe are graham crackers, melted butter, and sugar. How easy is that!
Making a graham cracker pie crust is easier than a pastry pie crust. There's no cutting in butter or kneading involved, or rolling out dough. Best of all, you can choose whether to blind bake it or make a no-bake graham cracker crust to get it ready to fill.
How to make a graham cracker crust
Step 1: Make the crumb mixture
Using a food processor, crush the graham crackers into crumbs (photo 1). You can use a mallet and a plastic bag, especially if you're not having a good day. Transfer the crumbs to a medium bowl if you're not using the food processor.
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Pour in the melted butter and sugar and pulse (or mix with a spoon) until the crumb mixture is combined (photo 2). It will have a sandy texture, but be wet enough to hold together when pressed.
Step 2: Press crumb mixture into pan
Press the mixture firmly into the bottom and partway up the sides of a 9-inch pie pan, a 9-inch round springform pan, or whatever sized baking pan you're using for your recipe. Use a pastry dough tart tamper, the bottom of a measuring cup, or a straight sided glass tumbler to pack the crust down tightly (photo 3).
If you're using a standard 9-inch dish pan (not deep dish), you'll likely have ¼ to ½ cup of extra crumb mixture. This can become a garnish for the final product you're making, if you like.
Step 3: Finish the crust
You have 2 options on how to prepare the crust for filling, no-bake and blind-bake.
For a no-bake crust: Chill the pie crust in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes to firm up the melted butter (photo 4). Fill as desired.
To blind-bake the crust: Baking the crust gives a toasty flavor to the crust, but be sure to have the crumb mixture tamped down really well so the final crust holds together (you don't need baking beads).
Place the crust in a preheated 375°F oven for 15 minutes until the crumb mixture is set and you smell the graham crackers toasting. Remove the pan from the oven, and gently tamp down the crust if it puffed up in the oven (photo 5).
Cool on a rack if your recipe calls for that, and fill as desired.
Questions asked and answered
Here are some questions you might have...
The answer lies with the type of filling you'll be making. Generally speaking, a pie, cheesecake, or other pastry that needs to be baked would use a baked crust. It's a good idea to blind bake the crust first so that you know it's properly set before adding your filling.
A chilled filling can use either a blind-baked (and completely cooled) crust or a chilled no-bake crust.
Here's a handy conversion guide for graham crackers and some cookies:
- 10 graham cracker sheets will yield 1¾ cups
- 40 chocolate cookies (255 grams) will yield 2 cups
- 71 vanilla wafer crackers (250 grams) will yield 2 cups of crumbs
- 43 gingersnaps (304 grams) will yield 2 cups of crumbs.
One reason is that the crumb mixture may not have had enough melted butter to set the crust when it was baked or chilled. Or, the crumb mixture wasn't tamped down firmly enough in the baking pan.
Pro Tip: How to make a cookie crumb crust
You can make pie crust with graham crackers, but you have another option. Cookie crumbs also make an excellent base. Of course, a graham cracker crust goes with most anything, as do crusts made with vanilla wafers, shortbread, and chocolate cookie crumbs (especially pudding-type pies).
All you have to do is replace the graham crackers with 2 cups (170 grams) of your favorite cookie crumbs. You can even add cookies to the graham cracker crumbs or combine different cookies together if you want.
Just remember to adjust the amount of sugar to taste based on how sweet the cookie is. If you're using sandwich cookies with the filling, adjust both the sugar and the butter to taste. Some cookie suggestions are:
- Vanilla Wafers
- Shortbread
- Chocolate cookie crumbs
- Oreos
- Gingersnaps
- Pretzels
- Saltine Crackers
The neat thing about cookie crusts is that the cookies are pre-sweetened bits of food hugs. They can be chosen to complement or contrast with the filling.
Use pretzels for an ice-cream Mud Pie, gingersnaps for a Pumpkin Pie, and saltine crackers in a Butterscotch pudding pie. These almost authentic Nanaimo Bars have a no-bake chocolate graham cracker base. You get the idea.
Making graham cracker or cookie crusts are also a great way to use up graham crackers or cookies that are going (or have gone) stale, so you don’t have to waste them.
So go ahead and let that cookie crumble. It will be the start of something delicious!
Slainté! L’chaim! Cheers!
Tammy
Related Recipes
Pies and tarts can be sweet or savory, and there are so many fillings from which to choose. From fruits to nuts and custards, there's bound to be a pie or tart that catches your fancy! Here are a few choices to try.
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Recipe
Easy Graham Cracker Crust (3 Ingredients)
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
- 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs, about 10 full sheet graham crackers, see Recipe Notes
- ¼ cup granulated sugar, see Recipe Notes
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
- Using a food processor, crush the graham crackers into crumbs. You can use a mallet and a plastic bag, especially if you're not having a good day. Transfer the crumbs to a medium bowl if you're not using the food processor.
- Pour in the melted butter and sugar and pulse (or mix with a spoon) until the crumb mixture is combined. It will have a sandy texture, but be wet enough to hold together when pressed.
- Press the mixture firmly into the bottom and partway up the sides of a 9-inch pie pan, a 9-inch round springform pan, or the baking pan you're using for your recipe. Use a pastry dough tart tamper, the bottom of a measuring cup, or a straight sided glass tumbler to pack the crust down tightly.
- If you're using a standard 9-inch dish pan (not deep dish), you'll likely have ¼ to ½ cup of extra crumb mixture. This can become a garnish for the final product you're making, if you like.
- For a no-bake crust: Chill the pie crust in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes to firm up the melted butter. Fill as desired.
- To blind-bake the crust: Baking the crust gives a toasty flavor to the crust, but be sure to have the crumb mixture tamped down really well so the final crust holds together.
- Place the crust in a preheated 375 °F oven for 15 minutes until the crumb mixture is set and you smell the graham crackers toasting. Remove the pan from the oven, and gently tamp down the crust if it puffed up in the oven. Cool on a rack if your recipe calls for that, and fill as desired.
Notes
- Vanilla Wafers
- Shortbread
- Chocolate cookie crumbs
- Oreos
- Gingersnaps
- Pretzels
- Saltine Crackers
- 10 graham cracker sheets will yield 1¾ cups
- 40 chocolate cookies (255 grams) will yield 2 cups
- 71 vanilla wafer crackers (250 grams) will yield 2 cups of crumbs
- 43 gingersnaps (304 grams) will yield 2 cups of crumbs.
Dawn says
I haven’t made it yet but oh boy I’m going to!! Thanks Tammy????
Tammy says
Excellent, Dawn! I hope you fill it with something extra yummy 😉