I had an experienced chef once make me a cheezecake. He used what seemed to
be a lot of melted butter in the crust and he also added very finely ground
almonds to the graham crust mixture. The crust was not prebaked and he lined
the pan with his fingers. It was fabulous. The almonds were just
recognizable to the taste buds.

F.J.

"Michael" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I like making cheesecakes, but my crusts suck. They are much
> harder than what I want. I am using ratios of 1 cup crushed
> graham crackers, 3 TB sugar, and 3 TB butter. Maybe a little
> heavier on the butter and lighter on the sugar, but that's close.
> I mold the crust up the sides, so I usually triple or quadruple
> that amount to get about a 1/4 inch crust. I have tried molding
> gently rather than pressing hard. That helped some but not
> enough.
>
> I quit pre-baking the crust at all in order to reduce its hardness,
> but that hasn't fixed it. The recipe I use is pretty close to the
> New York Cheesecake that's inside the Philadephia Cream
> Cheese boxes. I underbake by about 15 minutes. Recipe
> calls for 65 minutes and I go for 50. Works for me.
>
> How do I make my crusts soft? Do you have a simple
> alternative crust I could try?
>
> Thank you, Michael
>