Recipe: Grandma Paul's Sand Tarts (Paula Deen)

After seeing Paula Deen's sand tarts on Zoe's blog, I immediately felt the urge to make them for my kids. I quickly went downstairs to take the butter out of the fridge for it to soften. Unbelievably easy to make with only 4 ingredients - butter (I use salted), icing sugar, plain flour and ground almonds (my choice of nuts since I had no pecans at home).

Grandma Paul's Sand Tarts

I did a little research online, and found out that sand tarts are a popular Christmas cookie. The ingredients also seem pretty similar to polvorones (aka Mexican wedding cookies in US).

To make these sand tarts, the softened butter is simply beaten with the icing sugar, then the flour and ground almonds are folded in, and they're ready for shaping into crescents. These sand tarts are slowly baked in the oven at a low temperature, and the resulting cookie is buttery, tender and melt-in-the-mouth. They're also not too sweet, unlike most American cookies.

I am definitely glad that I made them, as they're simply delicious. My kids were delighted when they got to have these as their evening treat. As soon as the photos were taken, their little hands shot to the plate and grabbed a cookie :P

Is it good? My boy's expression says it all! Next time, I'm making a bigger batch!

Grandma Paul's Sand Tarts (Paula Deen)
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Bake for Happy Kids & Food Network
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Makes 15 cookies

Ingredients
120g salted butter, softened at room temperature
40g icing sugar, plus 20g more for coating & dusting cookies
130g plain flour, plus extra for dusting hands
60g ground almonds
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)



1. Preheat oven to 270°F / 130°C (no fan). Line baking tray with baking paper.

2. Using an electric mixer at low speed or a wooden spoon, beat the butter, vanilla extract(if using) and sugar until smooth. Then, add in the flour and ground almonds and mix well, until you get a rough dough.

3. With floured hands, take out a tablespoonful of dough and shape it into crescent. Coat the cookies with extra icing sugar and place the cookies about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking tray. Continue to dust your hands with flour as you make more cookies.

4. Bake for 40 mins, it is normal for them to look pale yellow. Dust with 1/2 tablespoon of icing sugar while still warm. Cool completely on wire racks and store in airtight containers.

Note: You can use other finely chopped nuts such as walnuts or pecans as per original recipe.

Cute boy enjoying his sand tarts

I am linking this to Cook like a Star (Paula Deen and Deen brothers theme) organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe and to Little Thumbs Up (June 2014: Butter) hosted by Jozelyn of Spice Up My Kitchen.

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