Sand Tarts

Sand Tarts. Strange name for cookies, huh? If you’ve never had a sand tart, you’re missing something. When I was growing up, my mom usually made sand tarts for special occasions like showers, teas, parties, etc. Sand tarts are the most flaky, tender, good tasting cookie I’ve ever put in my mouth. They are made with very few ingredients, butter (and I do mean butter, not margarine), powdered sugar, flour, vanilla extract and pecans. Then they are rolled in powdered sugar. When you pick one up, you get powdered sugar all over your fingers and usually on your face and your clothes, too. They crumble on your tongue and literally melt in your mouth! I'll give you the recipe later.

I liked them when I was a little girl and I still like them now. I had gone for many years and not made any sand tarts.

This week, I had a special reason for making sand tarts and I’m so glad I did. As the church hostess, I’m responsible for preparing and serving funeral meals to families. This past Monday, I did that for a special family, the Klings, long-time friends of ours. Chris and Stewart Kling’s brother passed away. Their parents, Bill and Florace Kling died within the past two years. Florace had been a friend of mine and I was aware of some of her specialty desserts. I came up with the idea to make some of her favorite desserts and serve them at the family meal after the funeral service. I hoped that her sons and their families would enjoy eating some of the desserts that she was “famous” for. I have several of her recipes, including her cheese cake and her shortbread sticks, so I made them. I remembered that she also made sand tarts. I didn’t have her recipe, but I knew that all the sand tart recipes I’ve ever seen were the same, so I made them. They turned out just like I remembered them, if not better! I made signs for the desserts that read “Florace Kling’s Sand Tarts”, etc. and I had copies of the recipes for the family to take home. They seemed so surprised, excited and appreciative of what I had done. I’m so glad that God placed it on my heart to do that. It brought joy to the family and lots of memories of Florace’s cooking. She was a very organized, precise woman and we talked and laughed about how her recipes were examples of that.

I hope you'll try these and enjoy them as much as I do.

Sand Tarts

1 cup butter (room temperature)
5 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Work in flour and pecans until well mixed.
Form into crescent shapes. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 for about 30 minutes or until lightly browned. While warm, roll gently in powdered sugar. They will be very fragile. You will probably break some, but that will just give you an excuse to eat some while they’re warm.