Cheesecakes, cream pies, many layered bar-type cookies, and, some refrigerated pudding and frozen ice-cream desserts call for using a graham cracker crumb crust or cookie crumb crust as a buttery, crunchy base. While homemade graham crackers, sugar cookies, shortbread cookies, gingersnaps and chocolate wafers make exceptional crumb crusts, I won't lie, it would have to be one heck of an insanely over-the-top dessert for me to bake any of them for the sole purpose of starting with a real-deal scratch-made base. That said, I learned early in my baking life that I don't at all care for the quality of any ready-made crumb crusts. They taste bland to me, and that's primarily due to the fact that they're made with vegetable shortening instead of butter. The good news is, all crumb crusts are super-quick and easy to make -- and full of buttery-rich flavor.
Crushed shortbread cookies + melted butter = a cookie crust.
1 10-ounce box Lorna Doone shortbread cookies, processed to crumbs (Note: The texture of shortbread cookies vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. I find the delicate texture of Lorna Drooe cookies perfect for making cookie crusts.)
6 tablespoons salted butter, melted (3/4 stick)
~Step 1. To prepare the shortbread cookie crust, break the cookies into small pieces and place them in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Using a series of 25-30 rapid on-off pulses process them to crumbs, then, with the motor running, process them to fine crumbs, about 10 more seconds. Transfer the shortbread cookie crumbs to a medium bowl.
~Step 2. Melt the butter in the microwave then add it to the cookie crumbs. Using a spoon, thoroughly incorporate the butter until a moist, grainy, semi-cohesive, crumb mixture forms.
~Step 3. Transfer crumbs to a 9" pie dish. Using a tablespoon, spread mixture evenly across bottom and partially up sides of dish. Using a wooden tart tamper, flatten/compress crumbs to form a crust across the bottom. When the bottom is firmly in place, use the tamper (in conjunction with fingertips) to press crumbs against, and to the top of, sides of the dish. Bake on center rack of 325° oven for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool 45-60 minutes.
A buttery rich shortbread cookie crust -- ready for pie filling:
An E-Z Two-Ingredient Shortbread-Cookie Pie Crust: Recipe yields 1, 9"-round crumb crust.
Special Equipment List: food processor; tablespoon; 9" pie dish or tin; tart tamper; wire cooling rack
Cook's Note: Making a cheesecake pie is a quick way to quell a craving for classic cheesecake. Sometimes known as poor man's cheesecake, this particular easy-to-make, lightly-baked cheesecake pie is remarkably resemblant of a dense, smooth, cream-cheese- and sour-cream-based New York-style cheesecake, complete with a two-ingredient, short-pastry cookie-type crust -- made with shortbread cookies. Try my ~ Cheesecake Pie w/Lorna Done Shortbread Crust ~.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2020)
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