I came across this tutorial the other day on NotMartha.org and had to give it a shot. It's the easiest recipe because...well...you don't actually cook anything. The dough for the cookies is just ready-made pie crust, and I love warm, flaky pie crust topped with butter, cinnamon and sugar. It's an easy and fun project. These lattice cookies are tasty with a cup of tea, cider or coffee and they're so cute they just scream Autumn...
Step 1: Roll out dough for two pie crusts (one box of two crusts is less than $3 at Randalls) onto parchment paper, and using a pizza cutter, slice each set of dough into half-inch strips.
Step 2: Carefully move one set of strips about a quarter inch apart and fold back every other slice.
Step 3: Lay down one strip of dough from other set of strips and fold strips back down.
Step 4: Now fold the other strips back over the one you just laid down. Put down another strip of dough from the other set.
Step 5: Fold strips back and repeat steps until you weave full lattice. I did the right side first and then the left side.
Step 6: Using a sharp cutter (I used a medium-size cocktail shaker), cut out the cookies and remove the excess dough from the parchment instead of trying to move them.
Step 7: Brush with melted butter or egg whites and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar before baking. Bake at 400 degrees for about 10-15 minutes or until golden-brown.
I was happy with the finished product. They were flaky and delicious although next go-round, I'll do a few things differently:
- I think the weave was too tight. Cookies will be prettier if strips are loosely woven.
- This method produced only five cookies, so I'll use a smaller cutter next time. When you pull the excess away from the cookies, you could combine the scraps, roll it out and weave it again to get more cookies and avoid wasting dough.
I had never attempted the lattice pie crust before and thought this was a helpful, easy-to-follow tutorial.
What do you think? Will you give these woven cookies a try? Do you like the sweet simplicity of the pie-crust dough? Let us know in the comments section.
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