I'm never doing standard pie crust for pumpkin pie again

Really dumb technical question because I'm a crappy cook and a worse baker: pumpkin pie filling is runny (I'm sure that's not a mistake, as it happens every time) so doesn't it make the crumbs really soggy? Or is this my lack of knowledge showing?

Heh, I lovelovelove graham cracker crust. If you can get your hands on Digestives, they make for a really great crust as well...and they smell amazing once the hot butter hits.

Frimble - I don't know why, but I never had a problem with the crust getting too soggy...not with pumpkin pie, banoffee pie, or cheesecake anyway. The crust hardens nicely when baked, so it shouldn't be a problem.

frimble3 said:

Really dumb technical question because I'm a crappy cook and a worse baker: pumpkin pie filling is runny (I'm sure that's not a mistake, as it happens every time) so doesn't it make the crumbs really soggy? Or is this my lack of knowledge showing?

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When you blind bake the crust, the butter coats all the crumb bits so they don't get soggy.

Sounds too sweet to me - I'm also not sure I'd like the contrast, but I don't really like any pie crust much, so I'm perhaps not the best judge. I certainly wouldn't like one with shortening or lard - maybe that was the problem!

cornflake said:

When you blind bake the crust, the butter coats all the crumb bits so they don't get soggy.

Sounds too sweet to me - I'm also not sure I'd like the contrast, but I don't really like any pie crust much, so I'm perhaps not the best judge. I certainly wouldn't like one with shortening or lard - maybe that was the problem!

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If you like it less sweet, just cut the sugar from the crust recipe. Le sigh, what would you do without me, corny? *facepaw*

Putputt said:

If you like it less sweet, just cut the sugar from the crust recipe. Le sigh, what would you do without me, corny? *facepaw*

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Not get sat on so much?

Graham crackers aren't really *crackers* you know. They's just cookies all sugar and er, brown stuff and ...graham.. flavour.

Ah! The butter that holds the crumbs together melts to provide a water-proof barrier!
I guess you now know that I wasn't kidding about ineptitude in the kitchen?
Thank you.

cornflake said:

Not get sat on so much?

Graham crackers aren't really *crackers* you know. They's just cookies all sugar and er, brown stuff and ...graham.. flavour.

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Try it with Digestives. I prefer Digestives to graham. Mmm...nom nom nom. Even better than cornflakes, actually. Oooh, now you know how to keep yourself from getting sat on! Throw a Digestive to distract me and run!

frimble3 said:

Ah! The butter that holds the crumbs together melts to provide a water-proof barrier!
I guess you now know that I wasn't kidding about ineptitude in the kitchen?
Thank you.

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Well I wouldn't take it swimming and expect it to hold up, but when you bake it, before you fill it, it's quite firm and crisp and you can see the fillings don't compromise it. Same as chocolate cookie crusts.

Putputt said:

Try it with Digestives. I prefer Digestives to graham. Mmm...nom nom nom. Even better than cornflakes, actually. Oooh, now you know how to keep yourself from getting sat on! Throw a Digestive to distract me and run!

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*stocking up on McVities*

I was just looking at the new chocolate ones and pondering if they were as bad as rumoured, actually.

cornflake said:

*stocking up on McVities*

I was just looking at the new chocolate ones and pondering if they were as bad as rumoured, actually.

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I used to love the chocolate ones...I'd break them up and eat them with my cereal. But now I find them tooth-achingly sweet. Worth trying though.

Available on Amazon (including the chocolate variety, ) for the non-UK among us, FWIW.

I may have to give them a try. Thanks for the heads-up about them. I do love graham cracker crusts on pumpkin pies.

I love graham/Digestive crusts. They're my go-to crust, really; I always have a large bag of crumbs in my freezer. (Actually, at the moment I have three: one Digestive [graham crackers aren't easily found here], one shortbread [doesn't work as well as I'd hoped, sadly, but still not bad], and one Hobnobs, which is a crunchy oat cookie. Those are nice mixed with digestives for custard pies]. I'm planning on crumbing some pretzels soon, too.)

I'd been wondering if they'd work with pumpkin but I'm a little reluctant to mess with the traditional crust, so thanks for this! Maybe I'll do two, and we'll see which we prefer.

I always blind-bake mine. The recipe I use is:

1 1/2 C crumbs
1/3 C sugar (sometimes I mix white and light brown, which is nice)
6 Tbsp melted butter

I usually toss in 1/4 - 1/2 tsp or so of salt, too.

375F for 7 minutes.

Alessandra Kelley said:

Graham flour is a special kind of whole wheat flour where the starchy part is ground finely (which is normal white flour) and the bran and wheat germ are ground coarsely.

It was developed by the Reverend Sylvester Graham as a healthful alternative to chlorine and alum-bleached fiber-free and nutrient-free white flour.

The Rev. Graham's original graham crackers were unsweetened. Most these days have some sugar or sweetener.

Modern major brands of graham cracker have a lot of sugar and often no graham flour at all, just white flour and brown coloring, and thus are pretty close to cookies.

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Well learn somethin' every day - I had no idea there was a graham flour. As I was typing the above thing I realized I had no idea what the graham was meant to be, heh. Now I want to try a real one - I'm going to check out the Whole Foods or something and see if anyone has real. Thanks for the info!

I've never not blind baked a cookie crust. I'd think it'd be risky otherwise, as the crumbs may get shifted or have a leaky crack I don't notice or whatever. Also I'd think the interior would be soggier.

Whether I blind bake regular depends on what I'm putting in it and how long it'll be in the oven in the end. That's about half and half maybe.

I make a pumpkin cheesecake using gingersnaps for the crumb crust. I haven't done it, but I'm sure they would also be great for pumpkin pie.

Stacia Kane said:

... one shortbread [doesn't work as well as I'd hoped, sadly, but still not bad],

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Rather than using crushed premade shortbread for a crumb crust, make shortbread dough and form it as a crust. Blind bake a few minutes then fill. Much like making lemon squares. I will never, ever use graham on cheesecake again. Shortbread is the best cheesecake crust ever. Except when making chocolate cheesecake, and then brownies are the only crust.

Taking notes on different crusts.

We use basic pie crust here, for meat pies, pot pies, quiche, pumpkin pies, etc.

jennontheisland said:

Rather than using crushed premade shortbread for a crumb crust, make shortbread dough and form it as a crust. Blind bake a few minutes then fill. Much like making lemon squares. I will never, ever use graham on cheesecake again. Shortbread is the best cheesecake crust ever. Except when making chocolate cheesecake, and then brownies are the only crust.

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I had a thing at some point with shortbread and shortbread/nut crusts, where I thought they were dense and too soft, so I'd freeze the dough and then grate it and press the shreds into a crust. It's sort of the same, but it produces a crispier, different sort of thing, because there's a bit of lightness and variation to the structure. Same as if you do a potato crust, basically.

Just don't press too hard and check for obvious holes if you try it.

I saw someone mentioning having done a pretzel crust for a cheesecake the other day and thought of this thread, heh. I've never tried that one, but I thought it'd be interesting with a chocolate-based pie.