Directions: |
Directions:1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter your choice of pie pan and set aside. 2. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl. Mix briefly with your fingers. Add the butter and incorporate well, mixing fist with a fork, then with your hands, rubbing thoroughly to form evenly dampened crumbs. 3. Spread the crumbs evenly and loosely in the pan, pressing them into the bottom and up the side. Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes. 4. Place on the center oven rack and bake for 7 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack before filling. For ice cream pies and other icebox pies, refrigerate the thoroughly cooled pie shell for 10 minutes before filling. Vanilla Wafer Crumb Crust: Substitute 1 ¾ cups finely ground vanilla wafers for the graham cracker crumbs. (You’ll need to start with about 4 cups crumbled cookies. I use Nabisco Nilla Wafers.) Add 2 T flour to the dry mixture and mix as above, adding 1-2 t. water to help hold it together. *this recipe comes from a thick book named PIE and here is tips from the author specifically for this recipe: Recipe intro: Graham cracker crumb crusts are great for all kinds of pies, especially creamy pies and ice cream pies. If you find yourself making this kind of crust often, keep a box of graham cracker crumb on hand rather than starting with crackers and grinding them yourself. It’s just faster and a lot more convenient that way. By the way, to make 1 ¾ cups graham cracker crumbs, you’ll need to use about 12 whole crackers. Grind them to a fine meal in a good processor, or stick them in a zipper-topped plastic storage bag and roll over them with a rolling pin.
Recipe for Success I like brown sugar rather than granulated sugar in my graham cracker crusts, because brown sugar has a certain amount of stickiness that helps hold the crust together. Incidentally, a tiny bit of water will make a graham cracker crust easier to press into the pan. While you’re mixing your crust and your hand are still covered with crumbs, dampen your fingertips under running water, then shake them into the crumb mixture. Continue to mix; you’ll see the difference right away.
Those Crumbly Crumb Crusts You know how graham cracker and other crumb crusts can sometimes be a little crumbly and resist your best efforts to press them into the pan? Well, here’s a little tip. If that happens to you, mix 1 T flour into the dry ingredients, than add about 1t. water along with the butter. Mix well, using your hands to rub everything together thoroughly. Modest amounts of these 2 ingredients can make a once uncooperative crumb crust behave splendidly. |