Make Your Next Pie Crust Using Pop Tarts

Making graham cracker crusts for no-bake pie and cheesecakes is passé these days. Celebrate this holiday season with a crumb crust that’s far from ordinary, yet familiar. This crust has a unique texture and is possibly the lightest crumb crust available. You can make a pie crust with one ingredient: Pop Tarts.

You can substitute a bunch of other cookies in a graham cracker crust recipe to achieve new flavor profiles, but it usually requires other ingredients like butter and maybe extra sugar to hold it all together. Without butter, the cookie crumbs will not hold the shape of the pie pan. The beauty of Pop-Tarts is that each one is filled with its own sticky sugary mess. All you have to do is expose it. Using a food processor this will take about 30 seconds.

How to Make a Pop-Tart Crumb Crust

For a standard nine-inch pie pan or cake pan, you will need four Pop-Tarts or two sleeves. If you have a deep pan, add two more pies. Place unfried Pop-Tarts in a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. I used the unfrozen strawberry flavor because, believe it or not, I didn’t want the frosting to make my crust too sweet.

If you are making cheesecake, line the pan with parchment. For the pie, grease the pan with butter. Process the tartlets at high speed until the crumbs have the consistency of coarse sand or the crust of any crumbs. This takes about 30 seconds. Pour the crumbs into the pie pan and, using a flat-bottomed measuring cup or other device, press the crumbs down and place them on the sides of the plate.

Place the crust in a 350°F oven for about 10 minutes or until the top edge begins to lightly brown. This short stay in the oven will allow the jam particles to warm up slightly and stick to their neighbors a little better. Cool on a wire rack for at least five minutes before filling.

The beautiful appearance of the crust is a bonus, but my favorite part is the finished texture. The Pop-Tart dough remains as tender as ever, but the jam pieces become slightly chewy after baking. It tastes just like you remember from grade school and would be the perfect accompaniment to just about any topping I can think of. Also, Pop-Tarts come in a variety of flavors, so if you’re making apple cinnamon mousse, use cinnamon brown sugar flavoring. If you’re making a holiday pumpkin cheesecake, add a pumpkin pie Pop-Tart. Just prepare the filling because the crust is ready in no time.