Cube steak recipe from my mother. From the leftovers, prepare a delightful gravy by mixing in flour, milk, salt, and pepper.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 40 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 4 dozen |
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar, or as needed
Instructions
- Beat butter in large bowl until light. Beat in 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar and vanilla. Add flour and mix until just blended. Stir in nuts. Shape dough into a ball, then flatten into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Shape chilled dough into 1-inch balls. Place on the prepared sheets, spacing evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven until firm and lightly colored, about 20 minutes.
- Sift 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar into a bowl. Transfer warm cookies to confectioners’ sugar and roll gently to coat. Immediately transfer cookies to a resealable plastic bag, seal the bag, and let sit until cookies sweat and form an icing, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 153 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 13 g |
| Cholesterol | 20 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Sodium | 1 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 11 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
My husband’s favorites and I make them every Christmas without fail. The only thing I do differently is I shape them in a crescent shape. They are always a hit!
I was so hoping to find my Mama’s Sand Tarts recipe, and this is IT! I used finely chopped pecans instead of walnuts, and I shaped the dough into little crescents, without refrigerating. After baking, I immediately rolled them in the powdered sugar, just like Mama did, and they were perfectly perfect. Everyone at a small family get together loved them….they are finger-lickin’ good! I would have rated them TEN stars if I could have!
Mixed pecans and walnuts. Perfect nutty, buttery goodness. They are so simple, with ingredients always on hand. We eat a lot of these.
I made these w/o the walnuts but otherwise exactly as written. They are great!! Tastes like Christmas in a cookie
My grandmother made these all my life, except she used pecans instead of walnuts. She called them Pecan Sandies, but when I tried searching for a recipe with that name they did not taste like I remembered. This recipe (with the walnut/pecan exchange) is the exact cookie she used to make. I now make them every year. You won’t go wrong with this recipe.
Craved these cookies during the holiday. Mexican wedding cookies or sand tarts. Amazing. I made a half batch. Cookies were delicate after coming out of oven. I skipped the nuts. Worked great
This recipe is exactly what I was looking for. My family has been trying to replicate my great aunts cookie for years and I was finally able to do it. I was even able to make a chocolate version!
What a wonderful surprise to find this particular recipe! I used to make these as a teenager. In fact, I made these for the first date I had with my now husband of 52-1/2 years! Our 5 children have given us 20 grandchildren and now there are 5 great grandchildren as well. It’s always a challenge to have something affordable for so many people for Christmas! This year all will be receiving a few of these Sand Tarts + the recipe and their ‘history’ in our family. CHANGES I MADE: pecans instead of walnuts (we had a big old pecan tree in the backyard of my childhood home); no chilling; balls a tiny bit larger, then rolled into small logs and curved into crescent shape; no steaming in brown bag. Thank you, Robin! Once more you have made my day!
Very yummy. Similar to Russian teacakes or Mexican Wedding Cookies. Chill dough in freezer for a quicker process. Also, don’t worry about the dough being crumbly when you shape it into a ball. For purposes of appearance, I would shape them into perfectly round balls or into crescent moons. They don’t spread out, so your initial shape is what you get. 20 minutes was perfectly timed. I’d make again.
i loved these. didn’t alter the recipe at all – but i may try the almond extract as others have recommended.
These cookies were perfect. Just like my Nana’s.
These cookies are addicting. I’m serious – I make them And I can’t take my hands off of ’em! I made them word for word several times, and they are wonderful. Next I’m going to try substiuting honey for sugar ……….. 5+ Stars 🙂 *******
This recipe has been in my family for almost 150 years. Grandma used 1 3/4 cups of flour and used finely diced pecans, but they are the best cookies you’ll ever eat! I made 200 for christmas and they lasted about 5 hours between 15 people 🙂
Amazing, amazing, amazing! I made the cookies early this afternoon and they’re already gone! The only change I made was to roll the cookies in powdered sugar the second they came out of the oven – it eliminated the need to sweat them in the ziplock bag. THANK YOU for sharing this recipe!
These have been a Christmas favorite of my son’s since he was a little boy. He’s 27 years old now,and I’ve been making these a lot longer than THAT! Delicate, melt in your mouth, buttery good. I always up the vanilla to 1 T. and also add a teaspoon of almond extract.
Delicious and easy to make!
Great recipe. An aunt used to make these years ago and I haven’t been able to find a recipe that came out like hers. This is the ONE. Thank you.
I enjoyed make these cookies for the first time. I made them for my best friend, I am sorry to say there wasn’t much left for her to take home that night. (We ate most of them!)
I enjoyed this dessert. It looks really good, along with the powdered sugar. I would definitely recommend serving this with milk.
This is my families traditional Christmas cookie since my childhood. I lost my recipe and this one is the same, except we call ours pecan sandies. It do think they could be just a tad bit more sweet though. I may use 3/4 c powdered sugar next time. Real butter makes these fall apart soft…like I like them. You can also use one t vanilla and one t almond or lemon extract for a little more variety in taste. My kids liked it w/ the almond extract and a little lemon rind mixed in. Enjoy!
I found this recipe extremely easy to make. Fantastic taste and texture. I left the nuts out, and rolled them in wax paper, then refrigerated them so that I could slice and bake them. It worked wonderfully.