Cinnamony Pie Crust Squares

Since I had plenty of "Stuffed Eggplant Florentine" left from last night, I didn't need to cook dinner this evening. Instead, I tried to help recreate an old memory for one of my special followers, Elizabeth (a true WB cheerleader). When I recently posted one of my test creations of "Churro Chips" (still under construction)...she mentioned that when she saw the picture of them, they reminded her of the delicious leftover pie scraps her mother would roll in cinnamon and sugar and bake into delicious treats. Until she reminded me of those, I had forgotten all about those not-too-sweet little goodies made with leftover pie dough. While the "chip" recipe I'm working on has the same flavors...it doesn't have the texture of pie crust...so there was only one way, as I saw it, to make something close...and that was to start by making PIE CRUST!  So, this evening, Cinnamony Pie Crust Squares were born! They don't have many ingredients and they don't take long to make...as a matter of fact, you could make the dough ahead of time or days beforehand and refrigerate it and then simply take it out of the fridge and roll it out and make them quickly if you wanted. The full recipe makes about 4 dozen little 1-1/2" squares. If you want to make a half-batch first to see if you like them, all the ingredients can be halved easily, except for the egg...in which case you can just use 1/8 cup of egg substitute (like Egg Beaters) to equal 1/2 of an egg.  Since these cookies are made with pie crust, they need to be rolled out between sheets of parchment paper...and while you could cut them into cute little shapes with cookie cutters if you wanted to, I tried to keep these more rustic and reminiscent of a simple cookie made with "scraps" so I just used my pizza wheel cutter to cut them into little squares. I rolled the dough to about 1/4-inch thick so they would be "crust-like" as they baked. If you want them more dense and less crisp, just roll them a bit thicker -- if you want them more crisp, bake them a bit longer. I hope you enjoy these simple little not too sweet "cinnamon-sugar" treats. These are for you, Elizabeth -- "almost as good as Mom's"...but I'm not fooling myself, because I know nothing is ever quite as good as when "Mom makes it." Enjoy!   :-)

Before going into the oven...

After coming out of the oven...

Ta-da!

Life is sweet without wheat...

Cinnamony Pie Crust Squares

Ingredients:

For the pie crust dough:

2 cups blanched almond flour

1 large egg

4 tablespoons chilled butter, diced

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons Swerve Sweetener

For the buttery cinnamon topping:

6 tablespoons melted butter

5 tablespoons Swerve Sweetener (plus 2 tablespoons extra to sprinkle on top)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Dash salt

Directions:

To make the dough, place almond flour, egg, 4 tablespoons diced butter, salt and 2 tablespoons Swerve Sweetener in a medium bowl and cut in using a dough cutter/blender until butter is uniformly cut in and a stiff dough forms. Form dough into a ball and place on a sheet of parchment paper; cover with another sheet of parchment and roll dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Using a pizza wheel cutter, cut rolled dough into approximate 1-1/2 inch squares and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes or in the freezer for about 15 minutes to chill (this will make the squares easier to transfer to the baking sheet). Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line a large cookie sheet or baking pan with parchment paper and carefully lift and transfer the dough squares to the pan (I used a small spatula); spacing the cookies about one inch apart.  

To make the buttery cinnamon topping, in a small bowl mix melted butter, 5 tablespoons Swerve Sweetener, cinnamon and dash of salt until blended. Using a pastry brush, brush the buttery mixture evenly on top of each square. Sprinkle cookies with additional Swerve (preferably granular) by pinching with your fingers and sprinkling each cookie. Bake at 350 degrees F for 13 to 15 minutes or to desired crispness (do not burn).  Let cookies cool about 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool. If desired, sprinkle cookies with additional Swerve immediately after removing from oven. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.