Learn how to make a thick, buttery homemade graham cracker crust with this easy recipe and my perfected shaping methods. You need just 3 ingredients, and it tastes so good, I guarantee you’ll never go back to store-bought graham cracker crust. And if graham crackers aren’t available where you live, we’ve got a tested-and-approved biscuit crumb crust alternative for you!
Today I’m teaching you my practiced-and-perfected method for making a deliciously buttery, sweet graham cracker crust that’s wonderfully crisp and crumbly, but still holds shape. You can use it for pies, bar desserts, cheesecakes, and more—like cheesecake pie, banoffee pie, and lemon blueberry cheesecake bars.
Master a graham cracker crust, and the rest is as easy as s’mores brownie pie.
Grab These 3 Ingredients
- Graham Crackers: (Well, obviously.) You need about 12 full sheet graham crackers, to yield about 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) crumbs. You can also purchase graham cracker crumbs in most grocery stores in the baking aisle. Graham crackers are an American pantry staple and come in classic honey flavor, but you can also find chocolate, cinnamon, and low-fat versions. Any flavor would be fine in this graham cracker crust recipe. I prefer to use the Nabisco Honey Maid brand original graham crackers—more info on that below.
- Butter: Melted butter binds the tiny crumbs together, and makes this crust taste unbelievably buttery and delicious. You need 6 Tablespoons (85g) of butter for a pie crust, but only 5 Tablespoons (71g) for a cheesecake crust. (Full cheesecakes can be really heavy and wet, so that is why I slightly reduce the butter.)
- Granulated sugar: As the crust bakes, the sugar crystals assist the butter in binding the crumbs together. Graham crackers are already sweet, so we don’t need to add much sugar, just 1/4 cup.
Prevent Your Graham Cracker Crust From Falling Apart
The ratio of ingredients is important, but what matters most is how you press the mixture into your pan. The technique you use can make or (literally) break a great graham cracker crust:
- Don’t be nervous that it’s crumbly: The mixture inevitably feels too crumbly as you start pressing it into the pan, but when you start applying pressure, it will stick together.
- Use your hands first: Press the bottom and around the sides with medium-firm pressure until the crumbs aren’t moving around anymore—you don’t want any loose crumbs. You can use a small flat-bottomed measuring cup to help smooth out the surface, just don’t pack it down too hard.
- Don’t pack too tightly: The crust needs to be compact, so it doesn’t crumble apart, but not so tight that it bakes into a hard, dense crust. You really just want to pack it until the shape has set and it’s no longer crumbly.
- Keep it rounded if making a pie: This sounds a bit odd, but you don’t want a right angle at the bottom edges where the sides and the bottom meet. Instead, you want it a little bit rounded so it stays connected when you slice into it—so the side crust doesn’t immediately separate from the bottom crust. Slide a spoon around the inside of the crust where the sides and bottom meet, to get that rounded shape.
I like to use my thumb on one hand and 4 fingers on my other hand to go around the top and sides. You can see me do this in the video tutorial below, too.
And, as explained in the 4th success tip above, running a spoon around the inner sides helps the crust keep a rounded shape, so the slices of your pie stay intact:
How to Make Graham Cracker Crumbs! Two Easy Methods!
FAQ
How many graham crackers are in a sheet?
How much is 12 sheets of graham crackers?
How many grams is 8 graham cracker sheets?
What is the measurement of graham crackers?
Are Graham crackers gluten free?
No, Graham crackers are not gluten free. The ingredient list on the label clearly mentions wheat flour as the primary component. As gluten is the key element in wheat, barley and rye, these cereals and its products contains gluten in considerable amounts. Besides, gluten-free products which are processed in the same unit where wheat, barley and rye products are processed also contain gluten due to cross-contamination, though the amounts may be negligible.
What is in graham crackers?
The main ingredient in graham crackers is graham flour. While graham flour is a type of whole wheat flour, it’s a bit different from what’s packaged and labeled as whole wheat flour. Graham flour contains all three parts of the wheat berry: the germ, the endosperm, and the bran.
How many graham crackers are in a box?
I have an old recipe that asks for “7 sheets of graham crackers (to make a pie crust). Maybe it’s just my brand of graham crackers, but it doesn’t come in sheets (although I admit to being old enough to remember graham cracker sheets). Instead, there are three individually wrapped packets of nine 5″ x 2.5” crackers in the box.