CATEGORY

Prepared Graham Cracker Pie Crust

2007 CHEFSBEST® AWARD FOR BEST TASTE WINNER

Nabisco

What Makes a Great Graham Cracker Pie Crust?

Pie fillings can be easy to prepare, but pie crusts can be a little intimidating. A prepared pie crust removes the preparation time and stress from your dessert preparations while providing a uniform consistency that makes it an ideal choice for any pie. With a graham cracker crust you can make homemade cheesecake, fruit pies and key lime pie in a snap. For a great twist on the traditional pumpkin or sweet potato pie, use a graham cracker crust and sprinkle the top with graham cracker crumbs. The toasty richness and added crunch will bring everyone back for seconds.

Our chefs define high-quality prepared graham cracker pie crusts as having a golden brown color and a high structural integrity. They should hold together well and have a sandy texture with a fine, even crumb. The low aroma should have a complex character that delivers a combination of graham, toasty, buttery and brown sugar notes. There should be no aroma off notes, including cardboard, musty and stale notes.

Graham cracker pie crusts are in taste balance when a moderate level of sweetness is the leading basic taste. Saltiness should follow at low levels, but sourness and bitterness should not be detected.

As a home to rich and complex fillings, pie crust itself should have a moderate flavor intensity. However, the aroma’s graham, toasty, buttery and brown sugar notes should flow through to the flavor, giving the crust a complex character.

High-quality graham cracker pie crusts should have a crisp texture—not soft—with a sandy and granulated mouthfeel that is never mealy. These pie crusts will have a moderately long dissolve along with a low level of adhesiveness making the crust stick slightly to the teeth, gums and upper palate.

When made into a cheesecake, the cheesecake filling should not overwhelm the pie crust’s graham cracker flavor. Given that graham cracker pie crusts are granulated, the structural integrity is not expected to be too high when fillings are added, but pie crusts should not completely fall apart when filled and baked with pie filling. They should only crumble at the right moment—when they’re being enjoyed.

Product Category Definition

The category judged was defined as shelf-stable prepared graham cracker pie crust for the consumer market, not including refrigerated or frozen pie crusts, pie crust mixes or pie fillings.

Other Leading Brands:

Ready Crust