My Favorite Cookie: Sandtarts

Today I decided to bake my favorite cookie since childhood: sandtarts. It's been a few years since I've made these delicious little cookies chock full 'o goodness, but it was time. Mostly because I was already in an almond mood as I waited for the pears to ripen to make almond and pear upside-down cake (next post!), and sandtarts are so amazingly almond-y.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........

What are sandtarts? By another name, they are Mexican wedding cookies. They often have nuts. My family's version which I've been making with my mother for as long as I can remember is better than Mexican wedding cookies and has no nuts, which makes them a safe party treat!

The recipe is extremely simple, and is as follows:

Sandtarts Ingredients

Serves about 35 depending on how large you roll the balls of dough

¾ cups butter

4 tbsp sugar (heaping)

2 cups sifted flour

~2 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp cold water

2-3 tbsp almond extract

Cream butter and sugar; add remaining ingredients; mix well.Pinch off  into roughly 1 inch bits of dough and rollinto balls. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Allow to cool for 20 minutes before putting confectioner's sugar over the top, otherwise it will just melt the sugar. 

Sift confectioner's sugar over the top or roll cookies in powdered sugar and enjoy!

Here's a picture of the dough:

It's a big bowl, but it doesn't make that much dough so make the balls small to get the most mileage out of it!

Here's a picture of the size of the dough balls. They're actually a bit smaller than 1 inch:

Here's a picture of them (all 38 of them!) when I pulled them out of the oven:

A close-up for the varieties of color and shape. As you can see, they don't really flatten out much.

Final product post-sugaring! As a side note, I used a colander (yes, like a spaghetti colander) to "sift" the sugar over the top. Necessity is the mother of invention!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!

Happy Eating!!