Learn how to make a perfect graham cracker crumb crust from just 4 ingredients (graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, and a little salt). This easy recipe creates a baked graham cracker crust that is the perfect base for cheesecakes, pies, and tarts.
I am convinced that many people order specific desserts at restaurants because of the graham cracker crust. Everybody loves it!
This is the base crust I use to make my delicious baked vanilla cheesecake recipe.
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Ingredients
You only need three to four ingredients to make a graham cracker crust from scratch. Here's what you need:
- graham cracker crumbs—you can process homemade graham crackers or store-bought into crumbs in a food processor or buy already made crumbs at the grocery store
- sugar—I prefer to use granulated sugar, but brown sugar would also work. I find the sugar brings more flavour to the crust
- salt—I bake with Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using table salt, add half the amount or the crust may be too salty. The salt makes the crust flavour pop, making it less bland, but it is optional and many skip it
- butter—I use unsalted butter that is melted (for ease of mixing), rather than salted because I choose to add salt. If you want to use salted butter, skip the salt!
Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.
Substitutions and Variations
If you don't have graham crackers or access to graham crackers, you can replace them with any dry cinnamon-flavoured biscuit (or a dry cookie made from warm spices). For example:
- speculoos cookies, sweet dry biscuits (cookies) made from cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg
- chocolate wafer crumbs or Orea wafer crumbs to create a chocolate crumb crust
- social tea biscuits for a vanilla crust, which you could flavour with a little dried cinnamon. You could also enhance the flavour of the graham cracker crust with some cinnamon too!
Opt for a dry biscuit as opposed to a chocolate chip cookie to make sure the cookie crust has the right texture.
Instructions
A graham cracker crust is one of the simplest crusts to make from scratch at home
Step 1—Stir together the dry ingredients (graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt) in a small bowl (image 1), then pour the melted butter over top (image 2) and stir until the crumbs are evenly moistened and beginning to clump (image 3).
Step 2—Transfer the graham cracker crumb mixture to your prepared pan (image 4), in this case I am using a parchment paper-lined springform pan. Use a flat bottomed glass to smooth out and press the crumbs in place from edge-to-edge (image 5).
Note: For some press-in crust recipes, you may stop here, without baking the crust. It all depends on the recipe and application.
Step 3—Once the crust is perfectly smooth and even (image 6), bake it until the edges begin to colour ever so slightly (image 7).
Hint: Use this method to make the crust for these easy s'more bars. For this recipe, the crust is pressed out in a square pan.
Top Tip
Take the time to press the crumbs into the pan so that you have a solid base for your desserts. If the crumbs are too loose, the crust will more likely fall apart when cut. Of course, a little crumbling is inevitable with this type of crust, as the ingredients suggest because there isn't a formal binding agent like an egg (or egg white) to hold it together.
Graham Cracker Crust FAQs
You technically don't have to prebake a graham cracker crust, but I find they are more sturdy and hold together better if you bake them first before filling them.
If you don't have graham cracker crumbs but have the whole crackers, you will need 10.5 rectangular graham cracker sheets (which have 2 crackers per sheet) or 21 square graham crackers.
While the sugar could be seen as optional and just for flavour, it actually also helps bind and solidify the graham cracker crust, allowing it to hold together better
Recipes With Graham Cracker Crust
If you love graham crackers, here are a few recipes that incorporate graham cracker crumbs and crust in them:
- s'more bars with a graham cracker crumb crust, a milk chocolate filling, and toasted marshmallow topping
- compost cookies, kind of like kitchen sink cookies made with salty and sweet add-ins, including bits of graham cracker crumb crust
- compost pound cake which incorporates graham cracker crumbs in the cake batter for flavour
- Earl Grey chocolate tart made with a graham cracker crust, a chocolate ganache filling, and whipped cream on top
- milk chocolate pots de crème are topped with a graham cracker crust crumble
- graham cracker crumbs feature prominantly in the classic Nanaimo bar crust and this white chocolate Nanaimo bars variation (which I love even more than the original)
If you tried this recipe for baked graham cracker crumb crust (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Baked Graham Cracker Crust
Ingredients
- 150 grams graham cracker crumbs
- 26 grams granulated sugar
- 0.625 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt optional
- 58 grams unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line a 9-inch (23 cm) springform pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt. Stir them together with a fork.
- Pour the melted butter over top and stir everything together for a couple of minutes until all the ingredients are evenly moistened with butter and they begin to clump together.
- Transfer the crumbs to the prepared pan and spread them out in an even layer from edge to edge. Use a flat-bottomed glass to press them firmly into place and smooth the surface of the crust.
- Bake until the edges begin to turn light-golden brown and just start to pull about from the sides of the pan (this takes about 10–15 minutes).
Notes
- you can use store-bought graham cracker crumbs or process graham crackers to fine crumbs in a food processor.
- you can replace the graham cracker crumbs with finely ground social tea biscuits or chocolate wafer crumbs. You can also use Teddy Grahams (the bear-shaped kids cookies) in place of graham crackers if you don't have any!
- I bake with Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt. If using table salt, add half the amount.
- This makes a flat, 9-inch crust, perfect for a 9-inch cheesecake baked in a springform pan. If you want the crumbs to come up the sides of the pan, you will need to double the recipe to have enough to cover the sides too (if not more!). If you have extra unbaked graham cracker crust crumbs, just freeze them for later.
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