Sand Tarts – Sugar Spun Run

Skinny and crispy sand tarts are easy and irresistible Pennsylvania Dutch cookies. Maintain them basic with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar and pecan halves, or make them festive with coloured sugars!

The Greatest Sand Tarts Recipe

If you happen to’ve been round for a short while, you recognize we’re sometimes group gentle and chewy cookies right here at Sugar Spun Run. Nonetheless, I’ll make an exception once in a while, particularly when nostalgia is concerned. And for me, there’s no cookie fairly as nostalgic as sand tarts!

A Google search received’t produce too many outcomes for this Pennsylvania Dutch basic, however in case you stroll via an Amish market close to the Mason Dixon line, you’ll make sure you discover these cookies in nearly each form and coloration. Simply tailored for nearly any vacation (though they’re hottest for Christmas and Easter), there are a number of qualities about these cookies don’t change: an extremely buttery taste, completely crisp texture, and impressively skinny look.

Three issues to find out about this recipe:

• These are very skinny cookies. You’ll assume you possibly can’t roll the dough any thinner, however you really want to try to get it lower than ⅛ inch thick for the right crisp texture.
• The nippiness time is lengthy, however it’s obligatory. It’s additionally vital to divide the dough into a number of elements so you possibly can let the dough you’re not working with keep within the fridge–we need to maintain it as chilly as attainable.
• Customise them as a lot as you’d like! Skip the nuts, lower them into enjoyable shapes, use coloured sugars, and so forth. So long as you don’t change the cookie base, you possibly can customise the toppings and form to your coronary heart’s want.

What You Want

This recipe is customized from a sand tart recipe my grandmother gave me. It requires simply 8 components–so easy and so good!

• Butter. We’ll begin this recipe by creaming softened butter with granulated sugar. I like to make use of unsalted butter and add salt myself. If you happen to solely have salted butter available, observe the conversion in my salted vs. unsalted butter put up.
• Eggs. My grandmother’s authentic recipe concerned separating the egg whites and beating them to stiff peaks. We tried this, however with how dense the dough was, it virtually appeared pointless. So, we tried once more with out individually beating the egg whites and had been very happy to search out the cookies tasted equivalent, so we nixed the additional step! Yay for simplicity!
• Flour. We’re sticking with all-purpose flour for these sand tarts. Ensure you measure your flour correctly, or you can find yourself with thicker cookies (and also you already know they need to be good and skinny!).
• Pecans. These are non-compulsory, however they do add a pleasant texture and taste to the cookies. I sometimes adorn simply a few of my sand tarts with pecans, since I additionally love them with simply the egg/cinnamon sugar on high.
• Cinnamon sugar. That is only a easy combination of floor cinnamon and granulated sugar. You probably have some cinnamon sugar already ready, be at liberty to make use of that right here as a substitute of constructing extra for this recipe.

SAM’S TIP: Reduce your sand tarts into any form you’d like! I keep in mind my grandmother skipping the pecans and slicing hers into stars and santa clauses. These had been my favorites!

Keep in mind, that is simply an outline of the components I used and why. For the total recipe please scroll all the way down to the underside of the put up!

The way to Make Sand Tarts

Make the Dough

1. Cream the butter and sugar with an electrical mixer till fluffy.
2. Whisk collectively the eggs, salt, and vanilla in a separate bowl, then steadily drizzle this combination into the butter combination whereas mixing on low velocity. Enhance the mixer to excessive and beat till lightened in coloration.
3. Steadily add the flour till absolutely included, then cowl and chill the dough within the fridge in a single day.
4. Divide the dough into 4 equal items, then put three of the items again within the fridge. We need to work with one piece of dough at a time.
5. Mud your work floor with flour, then roll the dough into a really skinny sheet (thinner than ⅛”).

Add the Toppings

6. Reduce the dough into circles with a 2 ¼” cookie cutter and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
7. Brush the tops of every cookie with the crushed egg, then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
8. Bake for 9-10 minutes at 350F (175C), then take away from the oven and let cool for five minutes on the baking sheet. Switch to a cooling rack to chill fully, then take pleasure in!

SAM’S TIP: Since sand tarts are so skinny, they’re vulnerable to burning simply. Regulate yours whereas they’re within the oven, as each oven is completely different and your cookies may be carried out earlier than 9 minutes!

Regularly Requested Questions

Have you ever ever had sand tarts? I’d like to know what you consider my model ❤️

Take pleasure in!

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