My gals Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia would be disappointed that I don’t love cheesecake. I don’t not like it, but a little goes a long way and it’s usually just a little too rich to eat very much of for dessert.
The cheesecake crust is a different story. It’s arguably the best part of cheesecake and I always feel a bit disappointed about how it’s treated as a second class citizen. It’s left to get soggy as a cheesecake ages in the refrigerator and becomes a gloppy mess.
♥ Related: Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
I wondered if I could elevate the cheesecake crust into a cookie? Turns out, there aren’t any recipes for graham cracker crust cookies! None that I could find on the first page of Google, at least. Then I wondered if it would work. A graham cracker crust is made up of just a few ingredients. Would a graham cracker crust cookie just crumble?
I really expected to struggle with this recipe, but it worked in one round of recipe testing! These graham cracker crust cookies came out so delicious! They are sweet, buttery, a little nutty, and crispy with just a bit of chew. I topped them with a lemon cream cheese frosting to give a head nod to their inspiration, but I think these would be great spread with a little jam, too. Or, as my dad suggested, a little bit of salted caramel or chocolate ganache (or both!)
♥ Related: The Best Brownies Ever
Think of these cookies as mini pies where the crust plays first fiddle. And you know, I’ll bet those Golden Girls wouldn’t mind eating their troubles away with a dozen of these. Rose, get the cookies!
Graham Cracker Crust Cookies
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust Cookies
- ½ cup pecan halves
- ½ cup old fashioned rolled oats not instant oats
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 tbsp butter softened to room temperature
- 2 oz full fat block cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 ½ cups confectioners sugar
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp full fat sour cream
Instructions
Graham Cracker Crust Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350F degrees.
- Add the oats and pecans to the bowl of a food processor. Process until the mixture is finely chopped. There may be a few small pebble sized pieces of nuts, but overall, the mixture should look like coarse sand.
- In a medium bowl, combine the oat and pecan mixture with the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, and salt.
- Melt 1/2 cup of butter. Add the butter to the bowl with the crumb mixture.
- Mix the butter into the crumb mixture until it's evenly distributed. There shouldn't be any dry spots and the mixture will look like wet sand.
- Portion the crumb mixture in a standard sized muffin pan by spooning tablespoon measures of the cookie mixture into each muffin tin. Use your fingers to press the mixture evenly into the bottom of each mold. You will either need two muffin pans or do two rounds of baking because this recipe will make 2 dozen cookies.
- Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 8 minutes.
- Once the cookies are done, pull the muffin pan out of the oven and let cool for five minutes. Then, using a butter knife or small offset spatula, carefully unmold each cookie by running the knife around each cookie and using the knife to lift the cookies out of the mold. Move to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Place 2 tbsp butter, cream cheese, lemon zest. and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if you are using a hand mixer.) Beat until well combined.
- Add the confectioners sugar. Beat on low until the sugar is incorporated enough not to cause a mess at a higher speed. Then increase the speed of the mixer to high. Beat until mixture is smooth and fluffy.
- Add the lemon juice and sour cream. Mix until lemon juice and sour cream are fully incorporated.
- Once cookies are cooled, frost each one with about a teaspoon of frosting.
Notes
- If you don’t have graham cracker crumbs, but you have graham crackers, use a food processor to process the graham crackers into crumbs.
- For a crispier cookie, bake for 10 minutes.
- This icing is on the soft side because I added lemon juice to amp up the lemon flavor and sour cream to bring in some cheesecake-esque tang. This isn’t a good recipe for frosting a layer cake but it works great for these cookies. Leftovers would also work well on crepes, pancakes, waffles, sweet buns, sheet cakes, or quick breads.
- If your icing seems too soft/thin, let it set in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to thicken up before frosting your cookies.
- To store, let the frosting on the cookies set for several hours, uncovered. Then place in an airtight container to store for up to a week.
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