Most recipes call for 1.5 cups of graham cracker crumbs, about 15 crackers, for a 9″ pan. Let’s cut that down, alright?
Just do a bottom crust.
Granted, cheesecakes look good with the crust extending up the side. Here’s the problem: that area around the bottom edge where the grahams transition from the bottom of the pan to the side of the pan, that area has a lot of crumbs.
It’s thicker than the bottom crust and thicker than the side crust.
That’s a lotta crumbs.
Plus you’ve got an inch or two of just grahams climbing up the back of each slice.
What does all this do?
It messes with our crust-to filling ratio. Too much crust will overpower the taste of the filling when you get to the back end of your cheesecake slice.
Your last bites are mostly crust.
Bummer.
And what do you see when someone’s finished with a slice of that kind of cheesecake? They’ve left that crust spine sitting on the plate.
Unsightly.
We want our cheesecakes to be in the Clean Plate Club!
We want raves!
(To jump to the recipe card, click here.)
A QUICK NOTE ABOUT THE CLEAN PLATE CLUB:
Years ago I worked in a restaurant where the food was excellent, just outstanding.
The Chef would lurk by the kitchen door and stare at the plates as you brought them back from the table.
Every plate.
If there was a speck of food left on a plate he would want to know why.
…I’d start thinking up excuses as I was picking the plate up off the table.
EQUIPMENT
- 9″ 2 piece cheesecake pan
- parchment paper (9″ circle)
- Baker’s Joy spray
- plastic gallon zip bag + cutting board + rolling pin
- or….food processor
- medium/large mixing bowl
- saucepan (preferably with spout)
INGREDIENTS
- 1 pack plain graham crackers
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted (but don’t necessarily use it all)
- 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
- pinch of salt
Soooooo…how many crackers?
9 crackers. One pack. Our crust is flat on the bottom of the pan. Don’t worry, the topping will cascade down the sides of the slice and people won’t even notice!
Lots of recipes call for sugar in the plain graham cracker crust. It’s up to you, and the sugar will help bind the crumbs. But the cheesecake is going to be sweet overall, and I get the feeling that too much sugar masks flavor.
And we want to maximize flavor!
Feel free to drop the sugar.
Butter…always unsalted. Put it in a pan with a spout and melt it gently on warm. It takes a little more time, but you’ll be running around plenty while that’s working.
If you’ re going to flavor a crust, with almond extract, orange extract, etc., add the flavor to the butter while it’s melting.
Maybe a pinch of salt in the butter.
Why not just use salted butter?
1…we want to control the amount of salt.
2…we want to maximize the flavor of each component.
Not a lot now, just a pinch!
PREP THE FAT DADDIO
Three things important here:
- 9″ two piece cheesecake pan called the Fat Daddio
- parchment paper in a 9″ circle
- Bakers Joy to grease everything up
You can do the very Zen way of measuring a 9″ circle of parchment paper and then cutting it out. We prefer exacto knife to scissors.
Much more precise.
Or, you can be a big shot and go on Amazon and get 100 nine inch circles for 7-8 bucks.
You know, they bring ’em right to your door.
Anyway, put the metal circle into the pan and Baker’s Joy the whole thing.
Then lay the 9″ paper circle in the bottom of the pan and Baker’s Joy that, too.
…ABOUT THE CRUST…
Let’s talk about forming the crust, putting the graham cracker crumbs into the pan. Lots of folks like to spread the crumbs around the pan and then tamp them down firmly with the bottom of a water glass.
This makes the crust tough! It makes it hard! Tap a fork against it, hear that clinking sound?
Let’s take a page from the Mom Method, shall we?
THE GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST MOM METHOD
Turn the crackers into crumbs. You can either put them in a gallon zip bag, squeeze out the air, and crush them with a rolling pin…or…whirl ’em up in a food processor.
It’s like the store bought parchment paper circles: much easier to whirl ’em.
Put the crumbs into a mixing bowl. Add the melted butter slowly, stirring and mixing the butter gently into the crumbs by hand. Don’t necessarily use all the butter…just a gentle drizzle until the crumbs are moist, kind of like damp sand, not too soggy.
Then into the pan and spread them around evenly covering the bottom, then tamp them down gently with the backs of your fingers.
Is the crust going to be even? Is the crust going to be of uniform depth?
No!
Will people care?
No!
Because the crust will be tender, not hard. I brought cheesecake to a Thanksgiving dinner and one restaurant-type guy praised the flavor overall and then said…
“And the crust is perfect.”
Thanks Mom!
SOME NOTES ABOUT THE GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST:
- to repeat from above, sugar is optional. We’ve read that the crystals help bind the crumbs together. It’s up to you….the MOM method makes for more crumbs on the plate, but the crust is more tender. And not as sweet.
- many recipes suggest baking the crust for 5-10 minutes, some never mention it. Also up to you. We don’t pre-bake the crust, but like the sugar aspect, skipping that step is going to make for more crumbs on the plate.
LINKS:
Jump to quick and easy recipe card
Fat Daddio’s 2 piece, 9″ cheesecake pan
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