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Ole was quick to declare this his favorite, which is unsurprising if you know his cookie-eating preferences. Crisp on the outside, just the very center of these cookies gives the most amazing chew. It’s also the best way to use up the dough scraps after you’ve just had enough rolling and cutting, and the kids are happily decorating the cookies.

Push a little further and your dough could become a spiced cookie bowl, ideal for a late night snack.

The addition of ginger buttercream turns these tiny cookies into delectable sandwiches. I shared them earlier this week over on Life…Your Way’s 101 Days of Christmas.

These are probably my favorite, tiny little cookies dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled (or not) with a few holly sprinkles. They’re perfectly adorable without being futsy or requiring I break out the pastry bags. Again, white chocolate, creamy confection. Win.

It turns out gingerbread is a most versatile dough, melding its way into different shapes, sizes and purposes, and giving you a wide assortment of cookies, just perfect for creating a story about the gingerbread boy.

Starting your holiday baking? Check out the Holiday Baking 101 Checklist with tips for freezing and more on getting your kids involved.

Pie Crust Crimping

Pie crust crimping is kind of secondary for me to a good, flaky crust and a luscious filling. However, it also goes a long way in presentation, so it seems at least somewhat necessary, especially when we’re thinking of the holidays. Here are a few tips to keep you sane as you go:

1. Leave extra dough around the plate. Always make your rolled out dough larger than you need so you can trim the edge. When you can get the edge all the same length, it will help make the crimping go easier and neater.


2. Keep it cold. The warmer your dough gets, the more impossible it becomes to work with. Try rolling it out and fitting it in your pie plate before you turn on the oven to keep the room colder. If your hands start to get hot, have a cold glass of water to hold or stand outside for a minute to get them to cool off before continuing.

3. Use a mat or parchment. Rather than rolling out your pie crust on a table or counter, cover your surface with something that won’t promote sticking. It will help you from adding too much flour to keep the dough from sticking, and that will keep your crust in good shape.

4. Don’t fret. Your crust isn’t going to be perfect. There will be cracks and breaks in the dough as you crimp, and you know what? It’s okay. They’ll either cook together or they won’t. Your pie will still taste amazing.

Here I am crimping. I use two methods. One is the four-finger method and one is the more traditional three-finger. Simply use your fingers as guides for where the crust needs to go. With the four-finger method you want to go over the last crimp in the dough when creating the next one. This creates tight crimps.

You can also braid the edge of your pie crust. To do this, I create an even lip on my crust that’s in the plate.

Then I roll out the extra dough and cut it into thin, long strips. I then braid those strips together to line the edge of the pie. The brush and dish there are water to help hold the braid together at the top and bottom of the braid. I also use it when attaching the braid to the crust in the plate.

I generally need 3-4 braids to go around the entire pie, with each strip of dough being about 9″ long before braiding.

You can also get fancy and do a design with cookie cutters around the edge. These also make great decorations that can be baked off separately and added to the pie when it’s time to serve.

Of course, pie crust without a pie would just be a shame, and so, I filled the braided crust with a mix of pears and buttermilk custard, the pie requested so long ago when things were simple and easy.

What are your favorite pies to enjoy on Thanksgiving? I’m willing to bet you’ll find one that suits your fancy over at TidyMom’s Love the Pie going on this week.

I’m playing today all over the place! Check out these other great Thanksgiving items for Food Network’s Thanksgiving Communal Table. Pull up a chair and check it out.

Cocktails, Appetizers, Soups and Salads:
Eat Be Mary: She’s Mulling It Over Wine
Cookistry: Bread With Ancient Grains
Celebrity Chefs and Their Gardens: The American Hotel Peconic Clam Chowder
Picky Eater Blog: Butternut Squash Soup With Thyme and Parmesan
Good Food Good Friends: Mushroom Soup

Mains:
Examiner.com: Grilled Quail with a Warm Beet, Frisée, and Pistachio Salad
She Wears Many Hats: Mayonnaise Roasted Turkey

Sides:
Living Mostly Meatless: Vegan-Friendly Corn Casserole
Healthy Green Kitchen: Red Kuri Squash Pie
The Naptime Chef: Crispy Rosemary Fingerling Potatoes
Gluten-Free Blondie: Apple and Cranberry Studded Stuffing
Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat: Blue Cheese and Rosemary Celebration Potatoes
Burnt Lumpia: Turkey, Sweet Potato and Cranberry Empanadas
Panfusine: Pan Fried Polenta Seasoned With Cumin, Ginger & Black Pepper
Homemade Cravings: Warm Brussels Sprouts and Cranberry Slaw
Bakeaholic Mama: Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Crispy Prosciutto
Show Food Chef: Beer-Braised Brussels Sprouts
T’s Tasty Bits: Sweet Empanadas with Pumpkin and Lupini Beans Filling
The Amused Bouche Blog: Braised Kale
The Little Kitchen: How to Make the Perfect Mashed Potatoes

Desserts:
The Macaron Queen: Macaron Tower
Poet In The Pantry: Amaretto Apple Crisp
Farm Girl Gourmet: Pumpkin Coconut Panna Cotta
That’s Forking Good: Cinnamon Chip Pumpkin Blondies
Out of the Box Food: Out of the Box Food Maple Pumpkin Pie
Cake Baker 35: Orange Spiced Pumpkin Pie
Lisa Michele: Pumpkin, Pecan, Cheesecake Pie
Food For My Family: Buttermilk Custard Pear Pie
Simple Bites: Black-Bottom Maple Pumpkin Pie
A Cooks Nook: Swedish Apple Pie
Yakima Herald: Pretzel Jell-O Salad
How Does She: Three of Our Favorite Desserts
Dollhouse Bake Shoppe: Thanksgiving Candy Bar Name Plates
Sweet Fry: Pumpkin Latte
Tasty Trials: Spiced Apple Panna Cotta With Caramelized Apples and Caramel Sauce
An Uneducated Palate: Puff Pastry Apple Tart
Frugal Front Porch: Mini Cheaty Cheesecakes

Even more:
Kitchen Courses: Thanksgiving for Six People Under $60
A Curious Palate: The Communal Table

What Type of Crust

Before we get started, let’s think about the pie you’re making, as this will help determine the crust you want. Where my fresh strawberry and rhubarb pie had a cookie crust that was baked, several cream pies use a cookie crumb crust. Then there is the classic pastry crust, made with flour and a bit of fat.

Pastry Crust Fats

For a pastry crust, one of the main components is the fat you’ll be using, so determining which you prefer is the next step. This may be a personal preference, or it may be determined by what kind of crust your mom or grandma made when you were growing up.

• shortening – any fat that is solid at room temp, but for use here, vegetable shortening
• butter – it comes from cows
• lard – rendered and unrendered pig fat
• a combination – a combination of butter and lard/shortening

Making the Crust

For our purposes, we’re using butter and elbow grease to make our pie crust. You can see my food processor method over on TidyMom today as well. There are benefits to both methods. The food processor is a bit quicker, but there is the downfall of cleaning it. Plus, not everyone has a food processor, and maybe your food processor is in use for something else during your holiday baking session.

Kiera is coming along for the ride to demonstrate how easy it is to make pie crust. You’ll barely notice her, though, because her clothing choice matches the decor. (She looks excited to be here, right?)

Measuring the flour.

The first step in making pie crust is the flour, and if you aren’t measuring your flour correctly, you’ll be getting less-than-ideal results in the final product. The most common mistake in measuring flour is to dig your measuring cup directly into the container and scooping out a big, ol’ scoop. However, this packs the flour down and can mean you have too much flour in your dough.

Instead, scoop the flour with a spoon and add it to the measuring cup, then leveling with a flat edge once the cup is full. The other method of getting an accurate flour measurement is to weigh the flour on a kitchen scale. One cup of all-purpose flour should weigh 125 grams. Other flour varieties weigh different amounts, though. Cake flour, wheat flour, bleached all-purpose, wheat pastry flour, all have different gram measurements. A conversion chart can help you figure out the flour type and volume conversion.

Cold ingredients.

Pie crust is flaky because there are pieces, actual pieces of butter in it, rolled into thin, flat sheets that when baked create the flaky layers. You can imagine, then, that melted butter would not result in flaky layers.

Therefore, it’s important to keep the butter cold to prevent it from melting. To do this, it’s best to start with really cold butter chunks. Cut the butter into chunks and then store it in the freezer for a few minutes while you get the rest of your ingredients ready. Some people go as far as to chill the bowl and the flour as well. Couldn’t hurt, right?

Butter chunks.

When mixing in the butter, use a long-tined fork or a pastry blender. A pastry blender is preferred because it makes cutting the butter up quick and easy, but I noticed recently that it’s near impossible to purchase one in stores if you don’t already have one. (I snapped a blade of mine off when it got stuck at the back of a drawer and needed to replace it.) If you get in a pickle, a fork works just as well.

You want to aim to get the butter into small bit, but don’t look for all of it to be tiny and flaky. Those chunks of butter are the pieces that will be rolled into thin layers in your dough. Butter chunks = flaky layers. Add in just enough icy cold water to get your dough to stick together. It should still look clumpy and not like a ball.

Let it rest.

Use your hands to squish those clumps together and then form two equal discs. Putting the dough in disc shape gives you a head start on that circle you’re looking to roll it into after it rests.

Pack your dough package in the refrigerator for at least an hour before you roll it out. This will help all those butter pieces to be nice and firm again, and it will give you time to prepare your pie filling. (You could also store it in the refrigerator for a few days or in the freezer for longer.)

The only steps left are rolling out your pie crust and placing it ever so gently into your pie plate. Be sure to use as little flour as possible (you could even roll between two sheets of parchment), and work quickly so the butter doesn’t melt, which would do away with those flaky layers. Then bake and fill with whatever pie your heart desires.

Pie, pie and more pie!

::Apple Pie Cheesecake | Food for My Family
::Fresh Strawberry and Gingered Rhubarb Pie | Food for My Family
::Cranberry Apple Deep Dish Pie | goodLife {eats}
::Fresh Coconut Cream Pie | Sophistimom
::Maple Pecan Pie | Simple Bites
::Pumpkin Pie with Cardamom Cream | The Family Kitchen
::Simple Berry Pie | Cheeky Kitchen

Are you making pie this season? What kind of pie is your personal favorite?

Read Jennie’s post for her Mikey and follow along on Twitter using #apieforMikey today and on Facebook.

1. Use a small, personal size watermelon.
2. Freeze only long enough for the sorbet to set, or if you freeze longer, give it a good amount of time on the counter to soften up.
3. Dip your knife (I used a large chef’s knife) in warm water in between each cut, and try to cut 2″-3″-thick slices off the watermelon. Too thin and they don’t hold together as well.

How are you staying cool in the midst of this heat wave? Are you enjoying the pool, spending time hiding indoors or heading towards museums and other air-conditioned retreats?