Cheese straws: What to do with leftover pie dough

My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner was an apple pie and vanilla ice cream. Baking is not my strong suit, but I think the pie turned out OK. My foodie pal ValleyWriter posted a blender pie dough recipe, so I tried that (though did not add sugar because Betty Crocker doesn't). As I was trimming the dough around the edges, I remembered that my mother makes delicious savory cheese straws from leftover dough like this. So I whipped up a batch. All you need extra is cheese and paprika--here's how.

First, I combined all the cuttings and rolled them out. The timing is perfect for these, because unlike with pie crust, it's good if the dough is a bit warm. After working it into a pie and trimming, dough should be just the right temperature and texture for cheese straws. Anyway, I rolled out the leftover dough and grated my favorite cheese onto it. That would be sharp cheddar.

I folded it in half over the cheese. That's not whole wheat dough, by the way, but something called "white flour with germ."

Then I rolled it out again and grated cheese on--twice more. I don't advise more than 3 layers of cheese because I believe otherwise the cheesestraw would slide apart uncontrollably once the cheese melts. After 3 layers of cheese, I rolled it out one last time and dashed paprika everywhere. Then I cut it into strips.

Now I had a quandary. I had just put a pie into a 425˚ oven on a cookie sheet. There was no way I could put my cheesestraws on that same cookie sheet with my bare hands without burning myself. Fortunately, a beloved burger flipper came to the rescue. I slid several cheesestraws onto it at a time...

... and placed them in a blazing hot oven right next to the pie.

I baked them about 10 minutes until the cheese was starting to ooze out the sides and singe, and the top looked a bit browned. To avoid another awkward transfer, I just took the pie off the cookie sheet and put it back in the oven, and let the cheesestraws stay on the cookie sheet and cool. I bet these would make a great hostess gift if tied with a ribbon and presented in a cute box!