Friday, December 19, 2008

Christmas Cookies in the Summer

Every Christmas, as far back as I can remember, my mother would make sandtart cookies. Sometimes, we made them with Grandma Landis. My mother would roll out the cookie dough as thinly as possible. She would cut out the dough with different cookie cutters. I liked the reindeer and the little turkey chick. Carefully, with a metal spatula, she would transport the fragile cookie dough to the baking sheet. We would brush beaten egg on the center of the cookie. Sometimes, we would sprinkle little colored balls on the top and sometimes, we'd put on crushed peanuts and cinnamon and sugar.

Every Christmas, after she made these cookies, Grandma Landis would freeze a cookie tin full of the large graceful reindeer sandtarts.
In the summer, when I would be back on the farm, playing hide-n-seek with my cousin, Anita, or begging our grandpa to empty his overall pocket contents into our open hands so he could turn numerous cartwheels across the lawn, my grandmother would show up with the beloved cookie tin. Pop. She would open it up and offer us her frozen treasure. We'd breathe in the cold Christmas air cooped up in the cookie tin and be transported back in time to the last Christmas past.  We'd pick up a reindeer and slowly eat it, one leg at a time and save the cinnamony centers for our last savory bite. I can feel it now, like it was yesterday. Christmas cookies in the heat of summer, cooling our bodies down, and warming our hearts anew.

Sandtart Recipe:
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 lb butter
salt
4 cup flour

That's all the information I have. Mix it up. Chill it. Roll and cut.
Don't forget to save some for later.
Catch a whiff of Christmas in the summer.

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