It's a Pie! It's a Cookie!

It's a Piookie!

I have an obsession with cookies. All kinds: chocolate chip, sugar, peanut butter, mixed flavors, kid flavors. I love them. And I can NEVER eat just one.

I know. A crust obsession AND a cookie obsession. It's why I go to the gym everyday.

This is one of my favorite go-to cookie recipes. It's from the Mrs. Field's Cookie Book.

Now here's the thing. I love cutout cookies, but I hate rolling them out. It makes a huge mess. Flour, flour, everywhere. So making them into piookies seemed a natural alternative. Sure, it takes time to press them in the pans, but not as much time as it would take to roll them all out and clean up that mess.

So, naturally, these piookies start with what makes all cookies great:

Butter. Lots of it. 3 sticks to be exact.

Other than that, its a super simple recipe. Butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and flour.  Mix and then chill for about 15 minutes.

 

This gives you an idea of the consistency. I used my mini-ice cream scoop to measure out balls of dough, about 1 tablespoon per mini muffin cup. I sprayed mine with cooking spray, just in case.

  

 I used my fingers to press the dough into the cup.  My index fingernail was short that day, luckily. You can also use the back of a wooden spoon, or anything that shape (even something thicker, like a wine stopper) to help you press the dough in.

 

When they came out of the oven, the dough had risen and it didn't look like a crust. While they were still hot I used the back of a wooden spoon to press the cooked piookies back into a crust shape, so the filling would fit.

  

Mmmmm...can you taste them? Buttery sweet crumbly goodness. It was all I could do to NOT eat them at this point.  They still needed a filling: chocolate ganache.

The word ganache makes it seem like it would be difficult to make. But it's not! All you need is heavy cream and good chocolate. I love Guittard's chocolate chips or melt n' molds. They are smooth and taste SO good.

  

Heat the cream in a saucepan until it's just hot but not boiling. Watch it carefully!

 

Add in your chocolate chips and stir. Let sit for 15 minutes and stir some more. Then cool completely.  This ganache recipe creates a looser mixture than a regular ganache.

The filling has cooled and now we can fill our piookies! Whenever I am filling something I use a disposable pastry bag. Or you can use a ziploc bag.

If you want the filling to set, chill for an hour or so before serving. This recipe made about 40 piookies. I made them for a family gathering and assumed I'd have lots of leftovers to get rid of (or eat under the dark of night in front of the TV). I was wrong! They were all gone after our party. They are that good!

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