Sprinkling crumbs for cake bases???

[aliwally]

Fellow CL readers and cooks - I've seen a number of CL recipes now that instruct you to "sprinkle" graham cracker crumbs or other similar crushed wafers etc. on the bottom of pie, springform and cake tins, to act as the base.

I haven't tried this "light" technique/alternative to pie crust yet as I'm very skeptical that it works. I'm thinking that when you put the batter in the tin, or cheescake mixture etc., all those sprinkled crumbs are going to get moved around or soaked up.

For those of you who have used this method to get a "light" base, can you please tell me your experiences.

Many thanks.
:)

[Laura B]

Well, usually the crumbs are mixed with a small amount of butter to moisten them so that you can pack them down in the bottom of the pan. You don't really just "sprinkle" the crumbs around the pan. My experience has been that this works very well, and the crumbs stay put. It is also usually a lot of crumbs, so they won't get soaked up by the batter. Hope this helps.

[lindrusso]

My experience with CL recipes using a cookie crumb crust has been the same as Laura's - they've always come out just fine. They seem too dry as I'm patting them into the pan, but they cook up just right.

[funnybone]

I have never used the crumbs all by themselves, but if you must cut out the fat from the butter, maybe you can try spraying some oil on the pan so that the crumbs can stick to it. Otherwise, like you said, I can see the crumbs mixing in with the rest of the ingredients.

[Grace]

I just made the Creamy Amaretto Cheesecake for the second time, and it calls for "sprinkling" the oreo cookie crumbs directly into the bottom of the pan (no mixing with butter, no patting, just plain sprinkling). It works just fine. No problem at all. They don't get "soaked up". The crust is very thin, and not really pronounced, but it's fine.

[Laura B]

Wow. I have never read a recipe that actually calls for just sprinkling. Glad to know that it works fine. I won't stress out about it if I come across one in the future! Thanks, Grace.

[akairo]

I have tried the "sprinkling" method on pound cakes. They call for spraying the pan with cooking spray and then sprinkling with breadcrumbs. This method works very well. I have never had a problem with getting the cakes out.

Tamara