‘Tis the season for cookies, but after becoming acquainted with Seattle’s coffee and pie maven, Dani Cone, and her new cookbook, “Cutie Pies,” it feels as if adorable mini-pies should be a new holiday tradition.

Cone is the inventor of individual-sized pies called “cutie pies” that are made in muffin pans, along with even smaller “petit-5s” made in mini-muffin tins, plus “piejars” (baked in mason jars), “piepops” on lollipop sticks and “flipsides,” which are hand-held turnovers. Sweet or savory, they’re all fun new twists on classic pie.

In an appearance on “The Martha Stewart Show” in October, Cone made her Peach Cutie Pies and Piepops with Martha, who gave them her seal of approval, saying, “They are so cute and lovely.”

Cone, 34, the owner of three Fuel Coffee shops in Seattle, along with the High 5 Pie shop (www .high5pie.com), always loved pie, thanks to her Grandma Molly’s baking talent, but she never actually baked pie herself until a few years ago.

“I’ve been a coffee person since things started to heat up in Seattle and have been in the coffee industry for about 18 years. I had a coffee shop and wanted some pie to go, something portable and small,” she told us in a phone call from Seattle.

Inspired by Grandma Molly, Cone baked dozens of pies until she got the knack, and she started to sell pies and flipsides.

Now, when people walk into her coffee shops, they’re greeted by a plethora of pie.

“It’s overwhelmingly sweet looking. They look at the case, see all the whole pies, flipsides, smaller items on the top shelf, and they’re like, ‘Wow, this is all pie?’ Any size and shape you want, any time of day,” Cone said.

Pie and a cuppa Joe: It’s a great combination. “Much like coffee, I realize that people love to come together over pie,” Cone writes in her book.

The mini-pie idea started to take off when Cone noticed that the previous tenant in a kitchen space she rented had left behind a lot of standard size, 12-cup muffin tins. She thought they should do something with the pans, and cutie pies were born.

“A cutie pie with a scoop of ice cream on top is basically perfect. Just the right size for one person,” Cone said. Her cookbook contains recipes for apple, pear-cranberry-ginger (see recipe), black raspberry and other fruit cuties, in addition to “Three Cheese and Onion,” and “Mac ‘n’ Cheese” cutie pies, among other savory flavors.

Cone includes four crust recipes in her book, for all-butter (see recipe), graham cracker, vegan and gluten-free varieties. She knows that pie-making, especially the crust part, makes some home cooks anxious, but since she mastered pies only recently herself, she knows what novices need to be successful.

“People often get a little nervous about making pie, but take your time, and you want to make sure to keep all of your ingredients cold when mixing the crust. Ice cold water, pop butter in the freezer for 24 hours, keep the dough out for as little time as possible, and don’t over-handle it. Don’t squish it too much or over-roll it. The less you work the dough, the lighter and flakier it’ll be,” Cone said.

If you want to start with full-sized pies, Cone has a chapter featuring her best-sellers, including pumpkin, peanut butter and jelly, banana cream, chocolate cream and, her second favorite pie of all time (after blackberry): “The Most Amazing Mile-High 5 Lemon Meringue Pie.”

In “Cutie Pies,” Cone suggests that you pick a pie shape that suits your occasion, and then choose a flavor and crust that matches. Chapters dedicated to each shape give suggestions for mixing and matching shapes, flavors and crusts. Cone makes it easy as pie.

“Pie is fun. It’s one of those things that everyone has a memory of, and it works for breakfast, lunch and dinner, sweet and savory. You can put anything in a pie, and it comes out good,” she said.