Sasha's Cinnamon Sugar Pinwheels/ Pie Crust

First you start out by making the crust! This is also the crust that I use for making pies!

List of ingredients:

• 1 & 2/3 cup of flour 
• 1 egg yolk 3 tbsp water (I usually add about 5 to 6; the more moist the dough, the better) 
• 2 sticks of salted butter (one for the dough, and one for the snickerdoodle cinnamon and sugar mixture) 
• Raw sugar 
• Regular white sugar
• Cinnamon 
• Parchment paper 
• Cookie Sheet 

Snickerdoodles 

Place the flour into a bowl. Make a well in the flour and place the egg yolk in the center of the well. (DO NOT USE THE EGG WHITE!) Next add one stick of butter; you want it to be at room temperature, so place it out ahead of time. Using your hands, mix both the egg yolk and butter together with the flour. Mix this very well!

Next, get yourself a bowl of water and ice. Using this bowl, add 4 tablespoons of water to the mixture. Add a couple more if the dough feels dry. (If the dough is too dry, it is very hard to roll out.) Form the mixed ingredients into a ball. Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap (e.g. Saran wrap). Make sure that it is air tight. Put the dough ball in the fridge for about half an hour, then it remove from the fridge and let sit at room temp so that it becomes easier to manipulate. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Sprinkle a liberal amount of flour on the rolling surface so that the dough does not stick. Roll out the dough into a circle as best as you can. 

Next, melt the remaining stick of butter. Brush the butter onto the dough. (More butter is better!) Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on it to your liking. Roll the dough into a cylinder shape (like a rolling pin) and cut into about 1 inch circles. Place the circles/pinwheels onto the parchment paper on the cookie sheet. (This makes clean-up easier!) Place the pinwheels into the oven and cook for about 20 minutes. Then serve and enjoy the yummy deliciousness that fills your mouth!

Pie Crust 

If you are making just the pie crust, follow the dough instructions in the first two paragraphs above, but preheat the oven to 425 degrees instead of 375. To prevent the dough from rising, use a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the dough. Cover the crust with tin foil and place pie weights in it (or some other heavy object(s) that can withstand the temperature) so the dough doesn't rise. Bake the dough for 15 minutes. Remove the tin foil and pie weights and lower the temperature to 375 degrees. Cook for another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it cool. Place whatever pie filling into the dough and cook for however long it takes, then enjoy!

With love, Sasha Rosemarie Lopez-Jacobs, Snickerdoodler Extraordinaire