Friday Foto Friends: Family Christmas Cookie Traditions

Hello Dear Friday Foto Friends!

I am writing this on Thursday night, after a delightful day spent with my new daughter- in -love Rose. At her suggestion (and my enthusiastic welcoming response) she wanted to come and spend her day off from work with me! (Her MOTHER-IN-LAW!!) and do some special baking together for Christmas!  Have you ever heard of such a wonderful thing?  I am overwhelmed with joy at this blessing God has brought into our lives!  Not having any daughters of our own, and our only other daughter-in-law lives way far away in another state (1500 miles away), so to have this dear new member of our family actually offer to come spend the day with me and do some baking together...well,  I was almost speechless with delight!  (I say "almost", because I've never ever been known to be totally speechless in my whole life...)

So, of course I wanted to teach Rose some special family Christmas Cookie Traditions...#one being, "Grandma Mursch's Sand Tarts".  Grandma Mursch being my paternal Grandma. (See a story about these cookies below).

I'm not too sure Rose knew what she was getting herself into when she volunteered to come help me bake these cookies.  They are rather time-consuming, with a lot of steps from start to finish...and the recipe makes a lot of cookies, so we were working on them for well over three hours (with a little break for a sandwich for lunch and to sit for a spell to have a cup of Christmas Tea and visit).

But I have to tell you, this was such a wonderful time of getting better acquainted and forming a precious bond between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law that I pray will last our life time.

 Here are the finished products...We made enough to save some for family/friends for Christmas as well as eat some now and plenty for Rose to take home to her sweet hubby (our #1 son!)

Also, at my son, the newlywed's request, I taught his sweet wife how to make Snickerdoodles, which aren't exactly a Christmas cookie, but are good any time!


Please excuse the misspelling of the word Cinnamon above. That's one of those words that always make me have to stop and think when I spell it...and obviously, when writing out that little recipe card years ago, I didn't stop and think long enough! LOL.

The newlyweds!  #One Son Benton and his sweet Rose -Celebrated their one month anniversary this past week!

Christmas time is for bringing families together and sharing the love of Christ with one another...and renewing our family traditions and making happy memories.  I think we did just that today! I feel so blessed. God knew just what I needed!!!!


As you will see from the following story, not only are Sand Tarts a Mursch family tradition (my maiden name), but many years ago my own mother-in-law participated in a day of baking these cookies with me!  So you can see the tradition continues from generation to generation, and from one side of the family tree to another side of the tree...and on and on!!

Here is the history of the Sand Tarts and an excerpt from a previous post from 2011, when our youngest son Scott also baked these cookies for Christmas!

Grandma Mursch’s Sand Tarts

(Elva Hill Mursch )

(My Paternal Grandmother)
December 27, 1896-December 16, 1984

My Grandma Mursch always made these Sand Tart cookies for Christmas. They are from a wonderful old German recipe. In 1980 Grandma shared this recipe with me  (four years before she passed away) so I could make it for my family and continue the family tradition. The first Christmas I made them, I wasn’t sure how many the whole recipe would make, and I needed a good cookie for the church cookie swap. My dear mother-in-law, "Nanny",  helped me roll and cut and bake the doubled - whole recipe, and we soon found out that it made about 18 dozen cookies! That was quite a task! I only needed 13 dozen for the cookie swap, and I was chagrined to discover that I was the only one who had gone to the trouble of baking a rolled and cut cookie for this event!

From then on, I usually only baked the Half Recipe, and it made more than enough cookies for our family and to share with others! As the years went on, and not having any daughters to teach... I eventually taught our youngest son, Scott, how to make these cookies so that he could continue the tradition. For many years he has baked these cookies as his Christmas gift to the family!  (HERE IS A PICTURE OF SCOTT, IN 2011,  BAKING THE SAND TARTS FOR THE FAMILY FOR CHRISTMAS!  THANK YOU SCOTT!!!!!)

The secret to a good Sand Tart is to be sure to roll the dough real thin before cutting the cookies. The thinner cookies are crispier and tastier. Just be sure not to burn them! Also, for the brushed on glaze of egg wash, you need two egg yolks and about a tablespoon of milk mixed together to cover the ½ recipe. I buy the pre-sliced almonds to put on top. Use about two tablespoons of white sugar to one teaspoon of cinnamon mixed together in a shaker (I use a salt shaker) to sprinkle on the tops.

This recipe is a keeper…and should be passed down from generation to generation!

Sand Tarts

(Yield about 8 dozen) (This is the Half Recipe)

Mix Together:

• 1 ¼ cups Butter = 2& 1/2  sticks
• 2 eggs
• 2 & 2/3 Cups Brown Sugar 

Then add 4 cups Flour

Roll real thin and cut with cookie cutters. Brush tops with yolk of egg beaten with a little milk. Put a sliced almond on top and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

My Son Scott carrying on the family tradition of making Sand Tarts at Christmas (2011)

Enjoy!

I hope you are carrying on some of your family traditions this Christmas! Please share them with us!

Now let's go check in with Deb at Breathing in Grace and find out what our other Friday Foto Friends are up to!