Oreo Pie Crust is stupid simple to make

There’s nothing to hate about this easy Oreo pie crust: with the delightful crunch of buttery crisped up Oreos, you’ll have the base for a great pie like my favorite peanut butter pie.

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You might be thinking, but isn’t this the same as just making a graham cracker crust? And the answer is no because Oreos and other filled sandwich cookies have something graham crackers don’t: filling. That filling means that you need a higher proportion of cookies to butter so that you don’t get a soupy mess. There’s no saving a crust that’s swimming in fat.

And because I don’t want you to waste your valuable baking time with recipes that don’t work, here I am writing about a very simple but very good Oreo pie crust.

Best thing: they’ll be extra Oreos afterwards because who doesn’t want to sneak one?

Oreo Pie Crust

Why making an Oreo crust is better than buying a store-bought crust

1. Customization: Want to make a vegan crust? No problem; just use coconut oil. Want to make a fun flavor? Grab those seasonal Oreo flavors you’ve always wanted to try.
2. Super easy: If you’ve got a food processor and 15 minutes, you can make this simple crust. There’s almost no pie crusts outside of graham cracker crusts that can boast those numbers. There’s 2 ingredients!
3. No added extra funny business: Yes, Oreos are processed, but when you make the crust yourself, you can take out the palm oil and canola oil. When I can avoid adding those things in my baking or cutting them out, that’s great. Also, there’s no need to add any extra sugar. Packaged sandwich cookies are sweet enough and need nothing else.

Do you have to use Oreos to make a good pie crust?

Any chocolate sandwich cookie or sandwich cookie with cream filling in theory should work here. That being said I had a total fail with my favorite gluten-free Oreo replacement (Goodie Girl). Gluten-free sandwich cookies are a little different, and I personally need to experiment a bit more to understand why it was a fail for me. Other good choices:

1. Store-brand chocolate sandwich cookies
2. Newman’s Own Newman-Os
3. Back to Nature Classic Creme Cookies
4. Simple Truth chocolate sandwich cookies

Double stuff vs. regular Oreos

Do not use double-stuff Oreos here. The ratio of filling to cookie is even higher which will affect how everything sticks together. Use regular Oreos for the best results.

Helpful equipment for making chocolate sandwich cookie pie crust

1. Food processor: yes, you can crush the cookies with a rolling pin inside a plastic bag, but it will be chunky and the cream will not be blended as well as if you have a food processor. Alternatively, you could use a blender. My Blendtec does a great job making fine crumbs.
2. Pie plate: either use a glass pie plate or a disposable foil pan. The foil pans are great for frozen pies like peanut butter pie.
3. Cup: any cup you have will do to help you compress the crumbs into place.

Why I don’t use melted butter for crumb crusts

I touched on this with my graham cracker crust recipe. Using room temperature butter instead of melted butter makes the crust a little easier to mold. Hot butter can make the crumbs a little too free-flowing, making for a crust that feels like it is falling down the sides of your pie plate.

This is even more true of an Oreo crust, where you are already starting with a cookie that has some fat in it. Add in melted butter, and you can have fluid black dust flowing down the sides. Use the cooler butter and this problem goes away instantly.

Easy tips for making the best Oreo crumb crust

1. Break up the cookies: The food processor will have an easier time blending the cookies down into fine crumbs if you break the cookies up a little before hand. I’ve noticed that I stopped having giant annoying chunks of cookies in my crusts when I started doing this. You don’t need to go crazy. Break each cookie up into 4ths, and you’ll be good to go.
2. Use plastic wrap: Use a layer of plastic wrap between the crumbs and the cup you’re using to compress down the crumbs. It’ll keep your work area much cleaner, and you’ll be able to apply better pressure to the crumbs. A nice compact layer of crumbs will bake up into a crust that’s easy to slice.

What recipes can you make that use an Oreo crust?

1. Peanut Butter Pie
2. The best Chocolate Pie
3. Peanut butter rice krispie treats: why not add a crust to your rice krispie treats?!

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