Pie Crust Cookies (or snakes!)

When I was little, my Aunt Geneva always used to babysit my siblings and I.  She was our very favorite sitter, because we would always have so much fun with her.  She would make us popcorn and orange muffins, and macaroni and cheese, and our VERY favorite thing: little cookies made out of pie crust that we called “snakes” because we mainly would just cut them into long thin strips.  My family still refers to these as “snakes.”  I used to love Thanksgiving morning because my Dad would make pumpkin pies and let us make snakes out of the leftover dough.

These cookies are great for kids.  Make a big batch of pie crust, let them cut it out into any shape they want, sprinkle it with some cinnamon and sugar and BAM! A delicious, flaky cookie that is so yummy with a cup of tea.

INGREDIENTS

2 2/3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup well-chilled All-Vegetable Shortening
6 to 10 tablespoons ice cold water
Sugar and cinnamon mix for sprinkling.

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 375°

Put flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.

Cut in chilled shortening cubes into flour mixture, using a pastry blender or a fork, in an up and down chopping motion, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some small pea-sized pieces remaining.

Sprinkle half the maximum recommended amount of ice cold water over the flour mixture. Using a fork, stir and draw flour from bottom of bowl to the top, distributing moisture evenly into flour. Press chunks down to bottom of bowl with fork. Add more water by the tablespoon, until dough is moist enough to hold together when pressed together.

Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not add any additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.

Divide dough in two equal balls.  Flatten balls into 1/2-inch thick round disks.

Roll dough from center outward with steady pressure on a lightly floured work surface and use a cookie cutter to cut into shapes.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and bake for about 8 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned.