Pie Crust Cookies

I have a slight problem. I made pie crust following the recipe below, which made a fabulous pie crust, if I do say so myself, for my pumpkin pie.

 

2 1/2 cup white flour

1 cup cold butter (cut up)

2 tbsp cold water

 

Instructions: In medium size bowl, add flour and butter. Cut butter into the flour until it is a crumbly mixture. Sprinkle water over mixture and create a ball out of it. When a well you have a well formed ball of dough, place in fridge for 15-30 minutes to make the dough easier to work with.

You may be asking yourself, um...so what's the problem? Well the recipe is great if your pie required two pie crusts (upper and bottom), but a traditional pumpkin pie only needs one. This left me with a whole lot of left over pie crust. It seemed like a shame to throw it away since I'm a firm believer in "waste not, want not."

What to do?

Make pie crust cookies. Stay with me. What are the basic ingredients in short bread cookies? Flour and butter. The left over pie dough already has butter and flour, so I just had to add the remaining cookie ingredients.

1/2 pie pie dough from above recipe
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (I really like vanilla!)
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup walnuts

Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small food processor or grinder, pulse the coconut flakes and walnuts to create a powder like substance. Add the coconut/walnut powder, vanilla extract, and sugar to the left over pie dough. Knead these ingredients together for about 5 minutes. Create small balls out of the dough (about 1 1/2 in diameter), place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet, and press down the ball to flatten it some. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.

Makes approximately  1 1/2 dozen.