Hamdi Saidani Pioneer Woman pie crust cookies are buttery, cinnamon-sugar-coated treats made from rolled pie dough cut into shapes and baked at 350F until golden. They take just 20 minutes from start to finish and use only three ingredients on top of the dough.
This recipe comes from Ree Drummond in Food Network Magazine, where she turns leftover pie crust scraps into a quick snack. The base dough pairs perfectly with Ree’s Perfect Pie Crust from thepioneerwoman.com, so you can make a full batch from scratch if you do not have scraps on hand.
Rolling the dough to exactly 1/4 inch thick is the step that decides whether these cookies work or not. Thinner than that and they bake into hard, cracker-like chips. Thicker and the centers stay doughy while the edges burn before the middle cooks through.
Pioneer Woman Pie Crust Cookies
Description
Flaky pie dough brushed with melted butter, coated in cinnamon sugar, and baked into crispy golden cookies. This is the best reason to never throw away a single scrap of homemade pie crust.
Ingredients
For the pie dough (Ree’s Perfect Pie Crust):
For the cookies:
Instructions
- Make the pie dough (if not using scraps). Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in cold shortening and butter with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 3 to 4 minutes. Beat the egg with a fork, then add it along with ice water and vinegar. Stir until just combined and the dough holds together when pinched.
- Chill the dough. Divide into 2 equal pieces, flatten into discs, place in zip-top bags, and freeze for 30 minutes until firm.
- Preheat the oven. Set it to 350F (180C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough. On a floured surface, roll the dough (or gathered scraps) to 1/4 inch thick, working from the center outward.
- Brush with butter. Use a pastry brush to coat the entire surface of the rolled dough with melted butter.
- Add the cinnamon sugar. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the buttered dough.
- Cut into shapes. Press cookie cutters straight down through the dough without twisting. Arrange the shapes on the parchment-lined baking sheet with a little space between each one.
- Bake. Place in the oven and bake until golden, about 12 minutes.
- Cool. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
FAQs
Why brush the dough with melted butter before adding the cinnamon sugar?
The melted butter creates a sticky surface that the cinnamon sugar clings to during baking. Without it, most of the sugar slides off when you transfer the cut shapes to the baking sheet, and you end up with plain dough cookies.
The butter also adds a second layer of richness on top of the butter already in the pie dough itself. That double hit of butter flavor is what makes these taste like a real treat instead of just reheated crust scraps with sugar on top.
Why roll the dough to exactly 1/4 inch thick?
A quarter inch gives you a cookie that bakes evenly from edge to center in 12 minutes at 350F. Thinner dough dries out and turns brittle, cracking apart when you pick one up from the cooling rack.
Thicker dough creates the opposite problem. The outside edges brown and crisp while the center stays soft and underbaked. You end up pulling them out too early to save the edges, or leaving them in long enough that the outside burns before the inside firms up.
Can you use store-bought pie crust instead of making Ree’s dough from scratch?
Store-bought refrigerated pie crust works for a quicker version. Unroll it, brush with butter, add cinnamon sugar, cut shapes, and bake the same way at 350F for about 12 minutes.
The texture will be different because most store-bought crusts use oil or palm shortening instead of the butter-and-shortening blend in Ree’s recipe. You lose some of the flaky, layered quality and the rich butter flavor, but the cookies still come out crispy and sweet enough for a fast snack.
Why let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving them?
The cookies are soft and fragile when they first come out of the oven because the butter and shortening are still melted. Picking them up immediately causes them to bend, crack, or fall apart between the baking sheet and the cooling rack.
Five minutes gives the fats just enough time to start firming up so each cookie holds its shape when you slide a spatula underneath. They finish cooling and crisping on the wire rack, where air circulates underneath to keep the bottoms from getting soggy.
What is the best way to store pie crust cookies?
These cookies stay crispy in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. After that, the moisture in the butter starts to soften them and they lose their snap.
Do not stack them while they are still warm or the cinnamon sugar coating sticks together and pulls off when you separate the cookies. Let them cool completely on the rack first, then layer them between sheets of parchment paper inside the container to keep the surfaces clean and dry.
