This Sand Tart Cookie Recipe is our family recipe perfect for the Christmas & Holiday season making a big batch of cookies.  These cookies are easy to customize to your tastes with various toppings and make a fun activity for everyone involved.  Check out our family home video of our cookie making session below!

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Sand Tart Cookie Recipe

We have made a tradition of making this Sand Tart Cookie Recipe every year for the last few years.  After Eric and I got married, it started with my husband Eric asking his mom, Linda, about these favorite cookies that her mother used to make when Eric was a little boy.  Linda found the recipe in her recipe box of hand-written recipes.  Many of the recipes in the box were written by her mother and passed down to her.

I have a selection of the recipes that I plan to share on Life’s Little Sweets.  It feels so good to share these recipes with everyone and have a permanent place where we can all reference them.  Each recipe brings back fond memories and continues tradition.

I have pictured here antique family cookie cutters that have been passed down in Linda’s family.  She said this kind of cookie cutter with a sharp edge is good for this Sand Tart Cookie Recipe.

Antique family cookie cutters

This bell-shaped, Sand Tart Cookie is decorated with vanilla sugar and ground pistachios

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Kitchen Tools Needed for Sand Tart Cookie Recipe

• • a selection of cookie cutters
  • rolling pin
  • parchment paper
  • cookie baking sheets
  • mixing bowls
  • a brush for brushing on the egg wash

If you like this Sand Tart Cookie Recipe, make sure to check out my Perfect Snickerdoodle Cookies recipe and check out the “Cookie” category on LLS 🙂

This Sand Tart Cookie Recipe is also great as a family/kids activity because the decorating part is like an art project!

This Sand Tart Cookie Recipe is ideal for cookie swaps or when you have to make a huge amount of cookies.

This Sand Tart Cookie Recipe is sure to become your family favorite Holiday cookie recipe!

Here’s a collage of some photos from our recent cookie making session! From top to bottom: My daughter M and I, Eric rolling the dough, Eric, M and Linda, the famous recipe box! and Linda’s mother’s handmade apron.

Sand Tart Cookie Recipe

Yield: 100

Prep Time: 3 hours 30 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours 40 minutes

This Sand Tart Cookie Recipe is our family recipe perfect for the Christmas & Holiday season making a big batch of cookies. These cookies are easy to customize to your tastes with various toppings and make a fun activity for everyone involved. These sand tarts are a thin, crisp sugar cookie topped with crunchy nuts.

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Ingredients

• 1 pound (about 2 1/4 cups) white granulated sugar
• 1 pound (about 4 cups) all-purpose flour, plus extra for lightly flouring surface when rolling out
• 8 ounces (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, room temperature/soft
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, separated, plus 1-3 eggs as egg wash for brushing on the tops of the cookies before decorating and baking
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• dash of Kosher salt, (1/4 teaspoon)
• sugar sparkling sprinkles for decorating
• ground nuts of your choice, (walnuts and pistachios are great!)

Instructions

1. Separate the eggs from yolks in separate mixing bowls.
2. Beat egg yolks until they are combined and slightly bubbly. Beat the egg whites until they are white and foamy.
3. Mix room temperature butter and sugar thoroughly, add beaten egg yolks, then beaten egg whites. Add vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, blend the dry ingredients with a whisk: flour, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture gradually in 4-5 parts to butter mixture, mixing well. This makes a very thick,sticky cookie dough.
5. Refrigerate the dough wrapped in plastic wrap for 3 hours or overnight (if overnight, allow the dough to come to room temperature before rolling, however, if the dough becomes too soft to work with return to the refrigerator until the dough becomes easier to handle).
6. After chilling, roll the dough out (about 1/8 inch) on a floured surface, cut out cookie shapes, brush egg wash on, then decorate with colored sugar, cinnamon sugar, chopped/ground nuts of choice.
7. Bake cookies at 350 degrees (preheated oven) for 8-10 minutes.

Notes

• Makes about 100 cookies (depends on cookie cutter size/shape)

Recommended Products

• 
  13 Pieces Stainless Steel Christmas Cookie Cutters with Comfort Grip 3.5í plus a Rolling Pin for Large Holiday Cookies, Snowflake Cookies, Gingerbread Man Cookies, Christmas Party and Baking Gift
• 
  Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker's Half Sheet (2 Pack), Silver
• 
  Silpat AE420295-07 Premium Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat, Half Sheet Size, 11-5/8-Inch x 16-1/2-Inch (2 pack)
• 
  Ateco 20175 French Rolling Pin,20-Inch, Solid Maple Wood, Made in Canada
• 
  Wilton Holiday Sprinkles Assortment, 6.8 oz.
• 
  King Arthur Flour 100% Organic Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, 80 Ounce
• 
  Ultra Cuisine 100% Stainless Steel Wire Cooling Rack for Baking fits Half Sheet Pans Cool Cookies, Cakes, Breads - Oven Safe for Cooking, Roasting, Grilling - Heavy Duty Commercial Quality

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Nutrition Information:

Yield: 100 Serving Size: 2
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 51

What’s your favorite family cookie recipe?  Let me know in the comments below! Best, ~Sara

Pin this to your “Dessert” and/or “Cookie” board(s)! ⇓

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Sara Maniez

Owner at Life's Little Sweets

Sara is an architectural designer turned work-at-home Mom.She lives in NJ with her husband, two kids under 5 and dog. She loves design, being creative and spending time with family and friends.She enjoys and shares baking, vegan, traditional & family recipes as well as DIY, lifestyle, organization and design ideas.

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