Sand tarts recipe

Barry had asked me to post the recipe for the sand tart cookies. He was very kind in his description of them. It really is a very simple recipe but sometimes those are the best. What makes them special, I think, is that they've been featured at special events for years and bring with them a feeling of tradition and long memory.

Sand Tarts

2.5 cups sugar
2 cups butter, slightly softened
2 eggs, well beaten
4 cups flour
White of one egg
Cinnamon and sugar
Pecan halves

(Note, this makes A LOT of cookies. You may want to start by making half a batch.)

Cream butter and add the sugar. Mix well. Add beaten eggs and mix thoroughly. Add flour and mix thoroughly again.

Shape the dough into logs about 2 inches thick. Wrap in waxed paper and chill overnight or for several hours in refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut in thin slices (wider than an eighth but less than a quarter inch thick.) Brush cookies with slightly beaten egg white. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and press a pecan half in the center of each cookie.

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. Check them often because they burn easily.

A tip: The dough slices better when it’s chilled but the cookies bake better when the dough has warmed a bit. It works well to take one of the logs of dough out of the refrigerator, slice the whole thing and put the slices in batches of 12 on waxed paper. Transfer them to the cookie sheets just before you top them with the cinnamon, sugar and pecan and put them in the oven. They seem to bake well this way.