Graham Cracker Crust

This Graham Cracker Crust doesn’t require any baking, and serves as a sturdy and delicious base for all sorts of pies and tarts. You only need 3 ingredients to make it!

Knowing how to make a quick graham cracker crust gives you a foundation for tons of different desserts, and today I’m sharing a few tricks for doing it well.

And while you can buy pre-made graham crusts at the store, they can taste old and stale. It’s totally worth making it fresh, and it’s very easy.

Quick Overview of the Graham Cracker Crust Method:

1. Combine graham crackers and sugar in a food processor.
2. Grind it up until no large pieces remain.
3. Add melted butter.
4. Run the food processor until the crumbs are moistened.
5. Press the graham cracker crumbs into your pan.
6. Chill for 30 minutes.

See? Simple stuff.

And it’s a general template that’s applicable for all sorts of variations.

For example, my Peanut Butter Pie uses Chocolate Graham Crackers for the crust, but follows the same method:

You can also use the same method for a Chocolate Wafer Pie Crust, or Gingersnap Crust, or even Pecan Crust.

Visual Guide for How to Make Graham Cracker Crust:

Using your hands, roughly break up two sleeves of graham crackers, just enough so you can fit them into the bowl of a food processor. Add granulated sugar on top:

Run the food processor until the graham crackers are ground finely into crumbs, making sure there are no large bits of cracker left.

Then add melted butter:

Run the food processor again until the crumbs are moistened:

Pour the moistened graham cracker crumbs into whatever pan you’re using, and spread as evenly as you can with a spatula:

Here I’m using an 11″ tart pan with a removable bottom, but you can put this into a pie plate or whatever dish you’d like.

Now for the Important Part: Press firmly!

Press and flatten the crumbs firmly using a rounded measuring cup:

It’s very important to be thorough about evenly compacting the crust, as this will help the crust hold together when you go to slice your tart or pie later on.

No Need to Bake, Just Chill It!

Chill the crust for 30 minutes, then you can go ahead and fill it with whatever you’d like.

Here I’m doing a mascarpone filling:

I then top it with strawberry slices for this wonderful Strawberry Tart, which is completely no-bake.

You can see how beautifully the graham cracker crust holds up, even when completely removed from the tart pan (affiliate):

What you want here is enough thickness to hold the base of the filling, but not overpowering for the rest of the dessert:

The amount below is perfect for an 11″ tart pan which is shown with the strawberry tart, or a 1/2 recipe works for a 9″ pie plate if you want something thinner.

FAQ and Tips:

Don’t have a food processor? Put the graham crackers in a plastic bag and smash them up with a rolling pin. Then you can mix in the butter and sugar in a bowl, and press into the pan.

Substitutions:

• Brown sugar can be substituted for the granulated sugar.
• You can substitute other kinds of cookies here for the graham crackers, like gingersnaps, vanilla or chocolate wafers, Biscoff cookies, or digestive biscuits for my European friends. 

How to Make Ahead: The crust can be completely made one day ahead of time and kept in the fridge. Or it can be frozen for up to 1 month, but I feel the flavor gets old and stale, so I don’t recommend it.