Gingerbread Man Shaped Nutella Snacks

I had leftover refrigerated pie crust from Thanksgiving. I have no plans for pie in the immediate future. And frankly, if I make a pie I need to get busy with my Martha Stewart quest and bake hers complete with *cough*homemade*cough* crusts. So what to do with this crust? I decided to try and make a treat for the kids after dinner. I grabbed the dough, the Nutella and my gingerbread man cookie cutter.

After the dough sits out about 15 minutes it easily unrolls.

Then I start cutting out my pairs of men.

Trying to make as little waste as possible.

Then I ball up the extra bits, roll it out with my rolling pin and cut a few more.

I was able to get 14 men out of one pie crust.

Half go onto a flour dusted cookie sheet.

Spread a little Nutella on each. In hindsight, they could've used more filling. I think in the future I'll use a pastry bag to pipe the filling onto the bottom pieces.

Decided to pop a mini marshmallow on the bellies of four to see what would happen.

Wipe the edges with water then press another gingerbread man pie crust on top.

Add two chocolate chips for eyes and prick bellies lightly with a small fork.

Found a container of gold sugar to sprinkle on top.

Popped in the 400° oven for about 15 minutes and pulled out these little golden men.

I was pleased their eyes didn't turn to melted goo or get popped off as the dough baked. Ideally I'd use mini chips but I was just working with what I had.

Cooling men.

Aren't they cute? The kids were very excited. It's beginning to feel like CHRISTMAS!

Off with his head!

This one wanted to get in on the Nerf fun.

Thumbs up from Princess Fierce.

And a thumbs up from my oldest who is admittedly not-a-fan of Nutella. *gasp*

"MOM! The marshmallow disappeared!"

Indeed when I sliced them in half the marshmallow was gone. But they tell me the flavor remained.

I tried one of these without the marshmallow. These little guys weren't terribly sweet, making them a fine dessert to end a busy, sweet-filled, long Thanksgiving weekend.