Easy as Pie (Crust) Blue Cheese Crackers

Usually when I make pies, I like to add little pie crust cutouts on top to fancy it up a little - leaves for Thanksgiving, stars for the Fourth of July, and so on. This works well with my lazy pie-maker crust-making method, which is to buy Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts.  I frequently get compliments on this crust, and it is better than any pie crust I've made myself - and no, I'm not getting paid for this endorsement!  Anyway, since the crusts come two to a box, it typically leaves me with an extra crust to use for cut-outs. But whenever I do this, I end up with a whole lot of extra crust. What to do with it?

I've tried several different things over the years - sprinkling it with cinnamon and sugar, parmesan cheese, garlic salt, all manner of toppings - but none of them were ever really compelling. This Thanksgiving, I happened to have some pungent blue cheese lying around. I cut the crust with cookie cutters, sprinkled a bit of the blue cheese on top, and popped them in the oven on a cookie tray along with my pie. Voila, super tasty blue cheese crackers!

My pie was baking at 350F, so I baked my crackers at the same temperature for about 15 minutes, until they were golden brown. However, if you're doing crackers alone, you might try using this recipe from Pillsbury, which suggests baking at 450F for 6-7 minutes.

These are so addictive and ridiculously easy - they remind me of those delicious cheese straws, but so much easier to make! Enjoy!

What do you do with your leftover pie crusts?

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