I remember once reading the story of one fast food worker’s infuriating interaction with a customer.
The customer ordered “a cheeseburger, but hold the cheese.”
The worker paused and asked, “So, a hamburger?”
Instead of sheepishly admitting her mistake, the customer was incredulous.
“No. I said I want a cheeseburger with no cheese. If I wanted a hamburger, I would have asked for a hamburger.”
Despite some back and forth, the worker begrudgingly took the “customer is always right” mantra to heart and charged her for the higher-priced cheeseburger—minus the cheese.
I had a similar moment with Joey recently when I made blueberry pie cookies.
“What makes them cookies and not pie,” he asked after taking the first bite.
I was dumbfounded. It hadn’t really occurred to me until that moment that, really, I’d just made mini hand pies, but just like the woman ordering a hamburger, I’m choosing to pretend I actually made cookies.
This recipe, no matter what you want to call it, comes from the blog “The Kitchen is my Playground.” You can find the original post at https://www.thekitchenismyplayground.com/2018/08/blueberry-pie-cookies.html. I added extra cinnamon in my version.
Blueberry Pie Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 2 pie crusts
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and prepare a couple baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
- Over medium-high heat, melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Add 1/4 cup water, blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, cinnamon and salt, stirring gently to combine.
- Keep the pot on medium-high heat, stirring regularly, until the mixture reaches a very low boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and cook for one to two minutes or until the mixture is thickened into a pie-filling consistency and remove it from the heat.
- On a floured work surface, roll out the pie dough to about one-quarter-inch thick, and using a three-inch cookie or biscuit cutter (or the mouth of a large glass or mug), cut out as many circles as you can, placing half of them on the prepared baking sheets and reserving the rest. Keep rolling the dough out and cutting until you have used all of it.
- Pour a few tablespoons of water in a small dish. Dip your finger in the water and run it around the edge of the dough rounds on the baking sheets to allow you to more easily seal your cookies.
- In another small dish, beat the egg along with 1/4 teaspoon of water to make an egg wash.
- Place about 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of the blueberry filling in the middle of each dough round, and top them with another, crimping the edges all the way around with a fork for a tight seal.
- Cut a small X into the top of each cookie with a sharp knife, and brush each with some egg wash.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool, and then transfer to them to a sealed container, or serve them warm with ice cream.
This pie filling was delicious. Even if you don’t make these cookies with it, it would make a fabulous sauce to go over ice cream or pancakes.
I also think you could get away with using frozen blueberries. Just thaw them and let them drain well before using them.
And, yeah, sure, if you bake these, you’re really just making mini pies, and maybe somebody will argue with you that they shouldn’t be classified as cookies, but honestly, once they get a taste, they probably won’t care what they’re called, either.
This piece first appeared in print on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
