Animal Cracker Crumb Crust

We have had a jar of animal crackers available to all comers for some little time now.  They do not seem to be decreasing in volume very much.  Several days ago I was listening to America's Test Kitchen Radio where they took a listener's call about crumb crusts, to cook or not.  (They said cook.) Bridget made a throw-away comment about using animal crackers so  I decided to try it!

The crust worked out very well, I thought.   I used Martha Stewart's recipe as a starting place:

6 ounces cookies

3 Tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

5 Tablespoons unsalted melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a food processor, crush the cookies to fine crumbs….making about 1 ½ cups.  Add the sugar, salt, and butter and pulse until combined.

Firmly press into pie dish.  Bake until crust is dry and set, about 12 minutes.  Let cool completely on a wire rack before filling.

Since I wanted to use up the animal crackers, this was a perfect recipe because I could weigh them to come up with the crumbs.

This pie crust worked well, I thought, with a chocolate filling.

As it turned out, no one ate the pie...I suppose chocolate pie for breakfast is too out there for them.  Dear One and Son#4 were able to have some.  The crust turned out to be very crumbly making it more of an eat-with-a-spoon dish.  I ate one bite and found it was very nice.  As is frequently the case, I am in the minority 

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