Decorated Sand Tarts in Christmas Tins

Part of what makes the holidays special are the family traditions, things you look forward to all year long. Many families enjoy making Christmas cookies and have a cherished cookie recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation. Every year, my family makes sand tarts—thin and crispy butter cookies decorated with colored sugar or cinnamon-sugar. These festive cookies are always a hit and never last long.

My great-great grandmother, who everyone called Mime, would begin making sand tarts right after Thanksgiving. Making sand tarts is a labor of love, especially when making a large batch of cookies to share with family and friends. You have to roll out very thin sheets of dough to cut the cookies. You need the dough just soft enough to roll it, but still hard enough to get it to the necessary thinness. This takes time and is quite the arm workout after a while, but the results are worth the effort. read more