Every couple weeks or so, we send out a little roundup of new recipes, techniques, and tutorials that we’ve recently posted on the site. Occasionally we announce exclusive giveaways to newsletter subscribers as well. We won’t spam you with ads or share or sell your email address. Every email we send has a 1-click unsubscribe link if you decide it’s not for you.
Pie Crust Cookies
With 22 month old Gray’s mamma wisely preferring to to delay serving him sugary treats, we found an opportunity to develop some holiday cookies that we could make with him that involved no sugar at all. We made Fruity Pie Crust Cookies!
Any basic pie-dough recipe without sugar will do to start. Ours includes ½ lb (1 cup) butter, 2 cups plus 2 Tbls. of flour (we used ½ whole grain spelt flour, and ½ unbleached all-purpose flour) plus ¼ tsp. salt whirled together in a food processor to an even crumble. Then we drizzled in up to 4 Tbsp. of icy cold water while mixing until it forms into ball.
Then the pie dough was ready to make into cookies. We rolled it flat, and then had fun cutting it into shapes with cookie cutters. Then we put the shapes on parchment paper on cookie sheets.
We then readied some all-fruit (no sugar) jam or preserves (we used apricot) by mixing about 3 Tbls. of jam with 1 Tbls. of water, to a consistency that it might be brushed on the top of the cookies.
More fun (and snacking) happened as we decorated the cookies with golden raisins. Dried cherries, currants, or chopped prunes work well, too.
Finally, we took the jam mixture and brushed a solid coat on each cookie.
[Another option is to cut a moist prune into quarters, placing all 4 quarters into the middle of a dough circle. Wet the edges, fold the dough in half over the fruit, then seal them with a fork. Brush with jam glaze (we used a berry blend for these) and then poke a couple of holes in each to vent. You have made little pie-cookies!]
We then popped them into the oven at 425°. It was hard to wait the 10-15 minutes until they turned brown, but we made it.
You can see from the video that Gray approved of the result. High-five!
That was how Gray first made Christmas cookies with his Grandy. There is nothing better.
Pie Crust Cookies