If you’ve been reading my articles for a while, you’ve probably heard that I come from a long line of pie makers. My recipe for pie crust has been around for five generations, and my whole family takes pie very seriously. In fact, there’s a passage in my family cookbook that specifically talks about how pies are special and we ought not feed them to just anybody who might not appreciate them for their worth.

Long story short, pie is a big deal.

The secret to an amazing pie (well there are actually a few secrets, but this is step one, and if you fail here, you’re hosed) is amazing crust. A good pie crust is super flaky and crispy. It stands up under pressure, but just barely. Store-bought crust is a terrible way to disrespect the craft. It’s crunchy instead of flaky, hard, and overly homogenous. It tastes weird, too. To be fair, my mom prefers store-bought crust for savory pies for textural / crust integrity reasons, but I respectfully disagree. I prefer to find ways to preserve the texture of a good crust.

And here’s the problem with good crust: it’s not exactly “hard” to make but it’s very precise. You will handle it minimally. You will use extremely cold water. And here’s the law that brings me to the point of this article: you will only roll it out one time.

This presents us with a problem: after you’ve finished cutting out your crust in the shape of a pie, you’re left with a bunch of scraps. If you just squish these things all back together and roll them out again, you’re not gonna end up with another pie. Or if you do, you’ll have already ruined it.

So what do we do with all these scraps?

Easy! Are your scraps big or small? I have some favorite things to do with both.

Mini Hand Pies

Oh baby, get in my belly! This is perfect for if you have big leftover pieces of crust. How big? If you can fold a piece in half over some cheese, you’re good to go.

Lay your large slices of leftover pie crust on a baking sheet, and put a small amount of filling on a piece of pie crust, then fold the crust over and seal it around the edges. If the edges have trouble sealing, use a small amount of water to glue them together. Bake until golden brown, probably 15-20 minutes.

Boom! It’s that easy! Your only constraint here is to have scraps of leftover dough that are 1) too small to make a conventional pie, but 2) big enough to still make something substantial. Oh, and you should also make sure that you’re stuffing the hand pies with something that can actually go in the oven. Don’t fill them with Boston cream and then come crying to me that it didn’t work.

I used ham and cheddar cheese in the hand pies pictured above. Other times when I planned ahead, I used low-moisture mozzarella dipped in heavy cream. And obviously, you don’t have to go savory. Use chocolate and marshmallows or whatever leftover pie filling you have lying around. Either way, it’s delicious. It’s like an empanada, but more flaky.

Pie Crust Cookie

If you have a good crust recipe, these cookies are so fine and delicate they just kind of disappear. Well, maybe they just disappear because we eat them so fast. These are usually a little chef’s snack that we get to enjoy while we’re the ones slaving away in the kitchen.

Take all the pieces of pie that are too small to stuff with cheese. Instead, coat them with cinnamon sugar and throw them in the oven. After five to ten minutes, they’ll be ready and delicious.

You can also do some extra fun stuff with these! I’ve seen them used as Christmas ornaments (which I wouldn’t do with my recipe since it’s so flaky and delicate). I like to cook up a cinnamon-apple compote to dip them in. I’ve also crumbled them up to use as an ice cream topping. All around, they’re just a great addition to any pie night.

Cheese Straws

This is a way of rendering my ultra-fine crust into something a little more durable. Take any leftover bits of crust, roll them into fine straws, then sprinkle them with good grated cheese and bake. My apologies that I forgot to take a picture last time I made these, but boy are they good!

For your best mileage, you want high-quality pecorino romano or parmigiano reggiano (and no, that’s not the same thing as parmesan cheese). Cheddar isn’t ideal here because of its high moisture content, so just go with whatever low-moisture cheese you have on hand.

Once made, cheese straws can make a fun little snack (and believe me, a substantial number of times, every cheese straw I made has gone the way of the dodo because I was enjoying them too much to use anywhere else). However, these are one of the best salad toppings I can imagine—just serve them fresh… don’t mix them into the salad an hour before showing up at the potluck because they’ll be soggy and ruined by the time you get there, and you won’t get invited to the next potluck. They’re also incredible when dipped in tomato soup or marinara sauce—basically anything acidic and super viscous, so guacamole, ranch dressing, chunky hot sauce… it all passes the taste test.

And there you have it. Some sweet and savory goodies you can make with your extra crust scraps. Come November, maybe I’ll drop my family’s famous pie crust recipe!

Do you have any neat things to do with extra pie crust scraps? Let me know in the comments!