Ever heard the expression, “Life is short, eat dessert first”? I’m the exception that proves that little rule. Given the choice between having another pork chop — or meatball, or slice of meatloaf, with maybe some more mashed potatoes and gravy and … wait, where was I? — oh right, given the choice between a second helping and saving room for dessert, I’ll take the second helping nearly every time.
Sure, I like sweets, but I don’t love sweets. I once had a bowl of Halloween candy on my desk that was still around come the next October. So it might not surprise you to know that I don’t make a lot of desserts, either.
Which is all a really roundabout way to say this is sweets week on How To Cook Like Your Grandmother.
Ingredients
~2 dozen vanilla wafer cookies
4 large graham crackers
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick)
plus more for greasing the pan
Directions
If I made more sweets, I’d be starting with my recipes for vanilla wafer cookies and graham crackers. But this might be the only graham cracker crust I make this year. I’m not going to make my own crackers just so I can crush them. I’ll be loose on my definition of “from scratch” for this one.
Dump all the wafers and crackers together in a large bowl.
Remember that there’s no way in the world to crush these in a bowl without making a complete mess, and dump them into a heavy-duty zip-top bag.
Roll with a rolling pin until everything is crumbled very fine.
Grease a 9×13 baking dish — this is actually 8×11 — with butter. Concentrate on the edges, you’ll get the bottom in the next step.
Pour the crumbs into the pan and spread evenly.
If you’re excessively picky — yes, that’s my hand in the picture, not my wife’s — spread the crumbs very flat.
Melt the half-stick of butter and pour it evenly over the crumbs, then mix it together.
Once the crumbs are moistened, spread them evenly and now make sure it’s nice and flat.
And that’s it.
Except for filling it with something of course. That’s tomorrow’s post.
24 Comments
I’ve never thought about using vanilla wafers. I’ll try that next time I make a dessert!
Why make the choice? Have the second helping AND dessert. That’s what I do.
That’s also why I will probably weigh 200 pounds by the time I’m forty. But it will be a HAPPY 200 pounds.
Linda, this recipe isn’t nearly as precise as it looks. (Does it look precise?) My wife has done these before, and her exact directions were, “A couple of handfuls of cookies and a couple of crackers.” The amounts I listed are what I could figure out from looking at closeups of the photos.
Kristin, I already am 40. And farther on the other side of 200 than I’d like to be. (And yes, happy.)
Nilla Wafers were not even on the market until 1968 — the year I was born. Hardly something my grandmother would have used.
And Nilla wafers are FULL of GMOs and trans fats.
Nilla Wafers ingredients:
Ingredients: ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), SUGAR, SOYBEAN OIL, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL, WHEY (FROM MILK), EGGS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SALT, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES (EMULSIFIER).
Soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup made from genetically modified crops — these ingredients would not be found in our grandmothers’ kitchens.
I appreciate that you may not make desserts very often — and so you don’t think it’s so bad if you make a Nilla wafer graham cracker crust every once in a while. But your readers may make this more often.
I was just thinking about making cheesecake and wondering how to make a healthy, traditional graham cracker crust. I was disappointed to see this recipe on your site.
I appreciate your concern. But for the record, while the brand name “Nilla Wafers” was first registered in the U.S. in 1968 — after its first use in 1967 — the basic product has been around a lot longer. Nabisco began marketing vanilla wafers in about 1901. The Martin Cracker Company, founded in 1900 and sold to American Bakers in 1907, also sold vanilla wafers. So in fact it’s entirely possible that Grandma, and great-Grandma, had these in her kitchen. Would they have had different ingredients? Of course. To avoid that entirely you’d have to start with avoiding nearly all prepared foods. I know people who are very concerned with what they eat who occasionally decide they’re too tired to cook and just order pizza. As long as we realize this is a once-in-a-while thing, it’s better than throwing up your hands and not cooking at all.
But … for anyone who does care enough to make their own vanilla wafers before crushing them for this crust, you can see a classic recipe from The Boston cooking-school cook book, by Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1918. Or a very similar recent version with accompanying photos. And here is a graham cracker recipe.
Cheeseslave: Jesus, Mary, and Joesph. Have a store bought cookie once and a while; sometimes it’s fun to live life dangerously.
Drew, I never thought to use nilla wafers in a graham crust. I confess to pure laziness – I just buy the box of graham crumbs, add some melted butter, a pinch of cinnamon (depending what I’m making), and bake away.
Oreo crumbs are good, too -they’d be fabulous with your chocolate pie!
Speaking of that pie, I can’t wait to see how you’re going to fill that crust.
I like the idea of mixing the crumbs. This opens Worlds of Possibilities: ginger snaps and chocolate wafers come to mind as potential crumb crust candidates, as well. Looking forward to whatever your filling is tomorrow!
Melissa, someone suggested a graham crust for the chocolate pie, and that just didn’t do it for me. (I don’t like s’mores, either.) But half Nilla and half Oreo sounds pretty good.
Jenni, that’s a great point. You can take pretty much any cookies and do this. (Okay, not oatmeal-raisin.) Now I know what to do when we have leftovers that aren’t going fast enough.
Pizza is one thing. It may not be a great food but it is a LOT better than eating high fructose corn syrup, soybean oil, and hydrogenated cottonseed oil.
I don’t think people have to be perfect. I certainly am not. But, really — Nilla Wafers? I would not call that food. Hydrogenated cottonseed oil is industrial waste masquerading as food.
While grandmothers may have made “vanilla wafers”, the modern version of Nilla Wafers doesn’t even use real vanilla!
GMOs and trans fats are known to cause myriad health risks. Here are some of the health risks of GMOs summarized:
http://www.responsibletechnology.org/GMFree/AboutGMFoods/HealthRisksBrochure/index.cfm
Re: trans fats: prior to 1910, dietary fats primarily consisted of butterfat, beef tallow, and lard. Heart disease was unheard of. Now it’s our number one killer.
If you want to use graham crackers to make pie crust, why not use a healthy brand made from traditional ingredients?
Here are the ingredients in New Morning Honey Grahams:
Organic unbleached wheat flour, organic whole wheat flour, organic evaporated cane juice, safflower oil, honey, molasses, leavening (sodium bicarbonate, ammonium bicarbonate), sea salt, and cream of tartar.
Well, let see here. I am new to posting here Drew, but I read every post…and I have made several things…from fajitas to the chocolate cake… I am all for “cooking from scratch” but also like some short cuts here and there! I too have never thought of using Vanilla Wafers for a crust…that is brilliant! We do make single serve cheesecakes in muffin tins and the vanilla wafer is the bottom crust…but that is a different recipe for a different day! haha.
I happen to have a box of Aldi brand (Mercer) Vanilla Wafers here in my pantry….they go really well with leftover chocolate buttercream frosting…I don’t see any cottonseed oil in these….here are the ingredients…typed in one by one:
ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), sugar, vegetable oil (one or more of the following oils: interesterified soybean, palm), with citric acid and TBHQ added to preserve freshness, contains two percent or less of: salt, high fructose corn syrup, natural and artificial flavor, sodium bicarbonate, soy lecithin (an emulsifier) and Monocalcium phosphate.
And while I am at it….while they are not considered a diet food…they are:
Cholesterol free
9 wafers =
150 calories
4.5 gm fat
saturated fat = 2
Trans fat = ZERO!
polyunsaturated = 0gm
monounsaturated fat = 1.5 gm
Thanks Drew for your blog! I truely enjoy!
Sarah, my mother does those mini cheesecakes in the muffin tins.
Oh gosh….it's called dessert for a reason, Cheeseslave. It's meant to be eaten in MODERATION. Sure it would be unhealthy if you ate dessert with processed foods in it morning, noon & night, but I bet everyone here knows the difference.
Drew, love the idea of different cookies in the crust. Maybe I'll make too many sugar cookies this week for the big kid's classroom snack and use them.
Stephanie, I don’t know why sugar cookies reminded me of this but I’m glad it did: snickerdoodle crust. Oh man, now what should I put in it?
Snickerdoodles need something mapley. Or maybe a pecan pie sort of thing. Oh yeah, I’m drooling.
Mmm, I’ve still got half a jar of sorghum. Pecan pie in snickerdoodle … sounds interesting.
Wow…strong feelings about Nilla Wafers. Makes me want to buy a box and thumb my nose.
But seriously, I’ll be making this recipe to cradle my key lime pie. Thanks for posting it!
I think I’ve somehow managed to never have key lime pie. Hmm, I’ll have to fix that.
I was wondering if you have a guess on about what cup measurement the crumbs turn out to be. Your idea to use some leftover cookies as a crust inspired me to try and use some now slightly stale peanutbutter cookies that my MiL gave us to take home from Thanksgiving…I'd love a peanutbuttery crust to try with your truffle pie! What do you think?
Ooh, that sounds good. Except I'm thinking peanut-butter crust for a banana cream pie.
I didn't measure how many cups it was, but you can fill the bottom of your pan with a bit more than a single layer and figure that's about right. Then just add enough melted butter to make it all stick together.
By the way, are you reading my entire blog from beginning to end? I think my mother is the only other person who's ever done that.
Ha, actually not…or not yet at least. I really hoped I wasn't being a bother with my quickly accumulating number of comments in one night (thanks for all your responses and patience with me!)
Basically my huband, Andrew, and I needed a break from a tough week (we're both full-time students right now), and he got to playing a computer game forever and I ended up looking at your chili recipe and then inadvertently started following the links mentioning other recipe posts, and just kinda got sucked in wainting for Andrew to finish playing. I really hope you don't mind all my questions…but let me know, if I get too inquisitive. Starting off on our own as a new married couple I'm suddenly very interested in learning how to prepare good meals at home. And this is such a great place for that
If it wasn't already clear, I'm really loving your awesome blog. It's really fun, and helpful, and inspiring. And at some point I may actually read it all, who knows (I have done that before with one other blog on home design). Thanks for all the help and good reads!
-K
WOW! Who knew a website dedicated to cooking like Grandma could turn out to be a discussion about transfats and GMO's….seriously Cheeseslave, were you having a bad day when you posted your comment, or did you eat so much cheese that your arteries are clogged and your brain isn't functioning at full capacity any longer? And as for your incorrect comment about the Nilla Wafers not existing in your Grandmother's day….maybe the brand name didn't exist but the cookie did….HOWEVER, I'm willing to bet that your Grannie never ONCE worried about trans fats or GMO's when she was preparing a dessert for her family! Which is, in fact, the entire premise for this webpage that Drew has so brilliantly put together and devoted so much of his time to. So, to quote one of my dear departed Grannie's favorite sayings: "If you ain't got nothin nice to say, don't say nothin at all". Drew – thanks for all your hard work and time spent here. Your information and ideas are a great resource for so many of us!
Karenlynn, That's true. But in Grandma's day there were no trans fats or GMOs. They really are that recent a development. Well … okay, they had margarine, but it probably wasn't used in making the vanilla wafers. No home cook bakes cookies with margarine, do they?
Hi Drew, is there a way to make this crust without the Nilla Wafers and only use graham crackers? I want to use this for a cheesecake crust, but how much of each ingredient would I need to cover the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan?
Emily, you can use any combination of crackers or cookies you want. I’ve done snickerdoodle, a bunch of people have done Oreo.
To figure out the right amount, lay down a double layer of crackers about the size of the pan. If you want to double-check, after you’re crushed them pour the crumbs into the pan and make sure it’s deep enough. Then put the crumbs back in a bowl and add melted butter until it sticks together.
If you want the crust to go up the sides, obviously you’ll need that much more.
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[...] while back I showed how to make a graham cracker crust. Down in the comments we got to discussing what other cookies would make a good crust. Of course I [...]
[...] idea for this pie came from some comments on my post about how to make a graham cracker crust. I knew I wanted to do a Snickerdoodle crust, but couldn’t decide what to put in [...]