Graham cracker crust is a style of
pie crust
Shortcrust is a type of pastry often used for the base of a tart, quiche, pie, or (in the British English sense) flan. Shortcrust pastry can be used to make both sweet and savory pies such as apple pie, quiche, lemon meringue or chicken pie.
...
made from crushed
graham cracker
A graham cracker (pronounced or in America) is a sweet flavored cracker made with graham flour that originated in the United States in the mid-19th century, with commercial development from about 1880. It is eaten as a snack food, usually h ...
s. Graham crackers are a sweet American
cracker made from
unbleached, whole wheat
graham flour
Graham flour is a type of coarse-ground flour of whole wheat named after Sylvester Graham. It is similar to conventional whole-wheat flour in that both are made from the whole grain, but graham flour is ground more coarsely. It is not sifted ...
. The crust is usually flavored and stiffened with
butter
Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...
or
vegetable oil
Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of edible plants. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed ...
and sometimes
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
. Graham cracker crust is a very common type of crust for
cheesecake
Cheesecake is a dessert made with a soft fresh cheese (typically cottage cheese, cream cheese, quark or ricotta), eggs, and sugar. It may have a crust or base made from crushed cookies (or digestive biscuits), graham crackers, pastry, ...
s and
cream pies in America.
Graham cracker pie crusts are available as a
mass-produced
Mass production, also known as mass production, series production, series manufacture, or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. ...
product in the United States, and typically consist of the prepared crust pressed into a disposable aluminum pie pan.
Variations use crushed cookies or
Nilla wafers as substitutes for the graham crackers.
Graham cracker crusts may be baked or unbaked before filling.
Origin
The invention of the graham cracker crust is credited to
Monroe Boston Strause, who was known as the Pie King and also invented the
chiffon pie.
[Perry, Charles.]
The Pie King.
Los Angeles ''Times'' January 9, 1997. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
References
Pies
Food ingredients
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