Nothing says Christmas time more to me than spending hours and hours in the kitchen baking countless amounts of cookies and treats for loved ones. This all started with my mom. My mom makes dozens of different kinds of cookies each year and in the last few years she's even let me help her out in the kitchen. Baking Christmas cookies with my mom is one of the things I cherish most about the holiday season and can't wait to travel home to Ohio in a couple weeks to whip up some of our favorites together! We make trays of her famous cookies and give them to friends, neighbors and family. I've found that there isn't much that people love more than a plate of homemade Christmas cookies and a hot cup of coffee.
So much has changed since last year. I've graduated college and moved across the country from Ohio to Arizona with D. D and I have our own Christmas tree and are starting our own traditions, even baking cookies in the kitchen together! Over the weekend D was craving some of his Grandma Jane's festive sandtarts so I offered to attempt to make some. I'm sure I didn't do Grandma Jane justice, but these cookies are absolutely delicious and addicting. Like D said, "You can eat them like they're potato chips." Truth.
This is such a yummy and fun recipe. I can't wait to share it with my mom!
Grandma Jane's Sandtart Cookies
Ingredients:
2 Cups Sugar
1 Cup (room temp) Butter
1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Eggs
3 Cups Flour
1 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Tsp Almond Extract
Green and Red Sugar Sprinkles
You'll also need a rolling pin and Christmas cookie cutters
1. Cream together the sugar, butter, salt and eggs
2. Add in flour, vanilla extract and almond extract
3. Mix it all together
4. Chill the dough in the fridge
5. Take a nap, watch a Christmas movie or decorate the tree! Come back to the dough in a couple hours. :)
6. CLEAN and then flour the surface of your counter. You'll need a lot of flour for this part!
7. Preheat the over to 350 degrees
8. Roll out the dough VERY thin. We made some too thick before getting the hang of it, but the charm of these cookies are their thin, crispy deliciousness
9. Start cutting out the cookies! We used trees, stars and candy cane shaped cookie cutters
10. Sprinkle the cookies! You can use a good amount of sprinkles- my favorite part!
11. Place them on a cookie sheet and pop 'em in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Be sure to watch them, their thinness makes them prone to burning!
12. There will be enough remaining dough to do this about three times
13. Last step- eat them up! Share with friends and family.
Enjoy the classic recipe! I plan on making more (D and I will definitely eat this first batch by ourselves...) and packaging them up to give to local friends for Christmas :)
