Gluten Free Graham Cracker Crust — 2 Ways
Ingredients
For the baked graham cracker crust
1 1/2 cups (300 g) gluten free graham crackers (I used my homemade gluten free graham crackers)
4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 egg (50 g, weighed out of shell) at room temperature, beaten
For the no-bake graham cracker crust
1 3/4 cups (350 g) gluten free graham crackers (again, my homemade version is my favorite)
8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
To make the baked crust, preheat your oven to 300°F. Grease an oven-safe pie pan, standard 12-cup muffin tin, or cake panel pan, and set it aside. Place the graham crackers in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade or a relatively powerful blender. The less power your machine has, the more you should break the graham crackers by hand into smaller pieces. Process until the cookies have become small, soft crumbs. In a medium-size bowl, place the graham cracker crumbs and create a well in the center with a spoon. In the center of the well, add the melted butter and beaten egg, and mix to combine. The mixture will not be very wet, but will hold together when squeezed in a fist.
Transfer the mixture to the prepared pie pan and, using clean fingers, press into an even layer across the bottom and halfway up the sides of the pan. I find it helpful to place a piece of unbleached parchment paper on top of the crust and then press the mixture into a smooth layer with the palms of my hands before removing the paper. If you’re using a muffin tin or cake panel pan, divide the mixture evenly among the wells and press each into the wells in a similar manner. Place the pan in the center of the preheated oven and bake until slightly puffed and matte-looking all the way in the center (about 10 minutes for a full pie; about 8 minutes for a standard muffin tin; about 9 minutes for a cake panel pan. If the crust has developed bubbles, you can pop them carefully with a toothpick but they will settle down as the crust cools. Allow the crust to cool completely in the pan at room temperature before filling however you’d like.
To make the no-bake crust, grease very lightly an oven-safe pie pan or cake panel pan and set it aside. If you’re using a cake panel pan, for each well, cut a piece of unbleached parchment paper that is about 1-inch wide and long enough to cross the center of the well and up each side. This will act as a sling to help you remove the crusts when you’re ready. If you’d like to make very small crusts, you’ll need a mini cheesecake pan with removable bottoms in each well. Place the graham crackers in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade or a relatively powerful blender. The less power your machine has, the more you should break the graham crackers by hand into smaller pieces. Process until the cookies have become small, soft crumbs. In a medium-size bowl, place the graham cracker crumbs and create a well in the center with a spoon. In the center of the well, add the melted butter and mix to combine. The mixture will be quite wet.
Transfer the mixture to the prepared pie pan or divide the mixture evenly among the wells of the cake panel pan and place on top of each parchment paper sling. Using clean fingers, press the mixture into an even layer across the bottom and halfway up the sides of the pie pan or each well of the cake panel pan. Place the pan in the refrigerator to chill for 10 minutes. If you’d like to fill the whole pie shell right away, do so and proceed with the instructions for the pie recipe you are following. If you’d like to fill the crusts in the cake panel pan right away, run a dull knife around the edge of each crust and pull on each tab to loosen each crust from the pan. Either remove the crusts and freeze or refrigerate them in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet or fill the crusts and proceed with the instructions for the pie recipe you are following.