The crust is always the best part when you use this buttery, never crumbly graham cracker crust recipe.
How to make a graham cracker crust
Making a crust for your cheesecake or pie is so incredibly easy. It doesn't take a lot of ingredients or prep.
- Crush your graham crackers - I usually have the box of pre-crushed graham crackers, but it is about 10 full sheets of the full crackers.
- Stir in the other dry ingredients until well-combined.
- Drizzle in the melted butter and stir until everything looks like wet sand.
Pro-tip for sturdy crust
So I don't know about you, but I never put any thought into how to press in your crust into your springform pan or pie pan. There is, however, an ideal way to press in your crust to ensure you have the best structure to hold up to any type of filling you may be using.
Start with the sides and the edges where the sides meet the bottoms, then with the remaining crumbs, press in the bottom.
You don't need nearly as much for the bottom of crust as you may think. Having sturdy sides and edges not only ensures your pie holds up to being cut, but it won't fall apart against the weight of the filling.
Substitutions
This crust recipe serves to be an amazing base for you to make substitutions for all situations.
If you don't have graham crackers, you can use Nilla wafers, digestive biscuits (with or without chocolate), shortbread, or anything similar.
Similarly, you can substitute the brown sugar with granulated sugar.
I do not recommend substituting the butter, especially if what you want to substitute the butter with has a lower melting point and you do not plan on baking the crust (for example, coconut oil).
This is because when you do not bake your pie crust, you are depending on your butter to solidify to hold the crust together. Lower melting points means your substitute might soften sooner and leave you with a crust that falls apart.
If you want to use coconut oil or similar substitutes, I recommend haking the crust because then the sugar will melt and caramelize which will hold the crust together.
Graham cracker crust F.A.Q.s
Nope! Chilling or freezing the crust will work just fine to keep it together.
Recipes you'll love
If you've got your graham cracker crust ready and want some inspiration on what to make now, try this s'mores pie or s'mores brownies. You can also use it on this blueberry ice cream pie. It'll also be great for this birthday cheesecake, caramel nut cheesecake, and lemon meringue cheesecake. Want to know what to do with your leftover graham crackers? Use it in these s'mores cookies.
Easy Graham Cracker Crust
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon optional
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
Instructions
- In a bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon (if using), packed brown sugar, and sea salt together.
- Pour in the melted butter and stir well.
- Add the crumbs to your springform pan or your pie tin.
- Press in the sides, then the edges, then the bottom. Use the bottom and/or sides of a lightly greased cup. to ensure the crumbs are tightly pressed in.
- This crust does not need to be baked, and will do well just being frozen for a few minutes. If your recipe calls for a baked crust, follow the instructions for that recipe.
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