My grandmother was not wealthy. She had seven children and was a young widow; each Christmas, she would bake these cookies and gift a box to each household. My memories of these cookies are quite pleasant. These days, I cook them for my grandchildren.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 8 hrs |
| Total Time: | 8 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 72 |
| Yield: | 5 to 6 – dozen |
Ingredients
- 2 pounds butter
- 2 cups white sugar
- 5 eggs
- 8 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed
- 1 egg white
- 1 tablespoon milk
- ¼ cup cinnamon sugar
- ¾ cup pecan halves
Instructions
- Cream the butter, sugar and eggs together. Add just enough flour to stiffen. Dough should be slightly sticky. Place dough in the refrigerator and let chill overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a very small bowl combine the egg white and the milk. Set aside.
- Remove small amount of dough from the refrigerator and on a lightly floured surface roll it out very thin. Cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter or drinking glass dipped in flour. Place cookies on a cookie sheet and paint the top with the egg white mixture. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and top with a pecan half. Repeat until all the dough is used up.
- Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10 minutes and the edges are slightly browned. Watch these cookies closely for they burn very easily.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 178 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 17 g |
| Cholesterol | 40 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 79 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These look like “Snickerdoodles” to me!!
It was sticky mess added flour but the tasted like flour then..nothing like my grandma made.
yes I tried this recipe and didn’t change a thing and they were like what my grandmother used to make We all loved them
We use a slightly different recipe (different proportions) and we generally make these at Christmas time so we use Christmas shaped cookie cutters and decorate with colored sprinkles/sugar. We don’t do the egg white mixture – just put the sprinkles on and they stick once baked. To make the dough cool enough to work with without waiting overnight we wrap it in wax paper and put it in the freezer for a while. My daughter is gluten free and I’ve even made ours with gluten free flour (I used a mix that’s “all purpose” from Wegman’s but the Bob’s Red Mill works as well). This year when we rolled them out I used coconut flour and they came out just like the regular ones. Last year we used the all purpose mix and when they baked they puffed up instead of staying thin.
Best recipe ! Nice fluffy melt in your mouth perfect .
My grandmother would tell you that you should see light thru the cookie. I have made these for years. They are a wonderful holiday tradition. I have never met anyone who could eat just one. Fantastic!!
Thanks Patty, for this truly authentic Sand Tart Cookie recipe. This wafer thin gem is one of the joys of Christmas! I roll them out on a slab of marble that used to be the top of an end table. I set the slab on the back porch to “chill” in between batches. It makes the rolling out easy for the thinnest possible cookie. Yum!
We have changed this recipe to include more flour. The original submission did not specify an amount, and we believe the amount originally stated was not enough.
I’m not sure what happened here, but these did not work out too well. When you say that you get a “sticky dough” mine was more like cake batter. I thought I did something wrong and added more flour. They were ok, but too floury. As a regular bread baker, when someone says sticky dough, I picture something I can hold that is sticky to the touch. I may try these again sometime, but not this year.
This was a good recipe. My family really enjoyed them. We will add it to our family favorites! Thanks for sharing such a treasure.