Sand Tarts
Submitted by Cristina Carroccio Sears
Every year in December, toward Christmas, Mother, Aunt Margie, my sisters, and I would hold a baking day and we would produce all the wonderful Christmas cookies. One favorite cookie was the sand tart—a recipe Irma Rombauer (Joy of Cooking) found in Normandy —it was quite a laborious recipe. Over the years I have honed it and made it more manageable. My version of Irma’s is below.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups of sugar
3/4 cup of butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
2 cups of flour
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Combine sugar and butter
Beat in egg and egg yolk, with the vanilla
Gradually, add the flour
Roll dough very thin and cut into shapes
Bake in batches for 8 minutes on a lightly greased baking sheet
Tip: Because these cookies are very thing this is a very labor intensive recipe. Well worth it—people gobble them! They have a peculiar aftertaste that goes very well with white wine. Set aside 1 day for the labor of baking and set aside another day to enjoy the results.