When I make a pie, I sprinkle any remaining pastry scraps with cinnamon and sugar, and then bake until light browned. These scraps are good, but I found a hundred-year-old recipe for Almond Strips that takes it to the next level.
Almond Strips are bars of baked pastry dough topped with cinnamon, sugar, and almond slices. These bars are a great way to use those pastry scraps – yet are so pretty and tasty that they can be served without apology.
Here is the original recipe:
And, here is the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Almond Strips
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup almond slices
pie pastry for a 1-shell pie (or use scraps of pastry dough left-over after making a pie crust)
1 egg white
Put sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl; stir to combine. Then add almond slices; stir. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 425° F. Roll pie pastry into a rectangle 1/4-inch thick. Cut into strips 2 inches X 4 inches. Place strips on a greased cookie sheet. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar/cinnamon/almond mixture. Make sure the sugar and almonds are distributed evenly across the bars. Press lightly. Bake for approximately 10 -15 minutes (or until lightly browned).
A Hundred Years Ago 