I made some cookies a couple weeks ago, and it seems time for a sweet treat around here. Especially with Valentine's Day around the corner! These are pistachio sandies. I think what I was really craving were sand tarts, like I remember my grandmother's sand tarts. What I remember of my grandmother's sand tarts are paper thin cookies (at Christmas time) sprinkled with red and green sprinkles. What I also remember is my grandmother saying that you should have seen her mother's sand tarts. She rolled them so thin you could see through them. Mom, am I remembering this right? Anyway. That's not what these are.

These are sandies. Usually sandies are the pecan variety, but I wanted something different, so I sleuthed around and found this recipe. Hey guess what! It's gluten free! But I got stuck at the grocery store and couldn't find several of the ingredients. Fortunately Google comes to the grocery store with me (how handy!), and I found a non-GF version for all the little people. You can find it here. You'll have to scroll to get to the recipe, which I had to tweak a bit, so if you decide to make it, shoot me a line and I'll let you know what helped me out.

They were good.

Up next? Sand tarts. Grandma's version.

There are so many layers to the story of these pie crust cookies that it's hard to know where to begin. My grandmother was an amazing baker and my mom is too. My grandmother made cobblers and pies, too numerous to count. I remember peach the best. Peach orchards rim the county where my grandmother lived and my mother grew up, so I associate peaches not only with summer but with these two women.

I'm not a fan of cooked fruit, but give me a pie crust any day. To me, the filling of the pie is immaterial to the whole pie business. It's all about the crust. I grew up with these cookies, made first by my maternal grandmother, Grandma Mercedes (not pronounced like the car; the emphasis is on the 1st syllable) and now made by my mom. They're simple, really. Make your pie crust for your pie, but make a little more.

At our house, things break down with the make your pie crust for your pie. Every time my mom comes, we "make" her make us a pie, and every time we have trouble remembering which crust recipe was the very best. I'm going to suggest you pick your own recipe here, even pre-made will do.

If you make a pie, go ahead and make it, but really? That part isn't necessary. If you don't bake a pie, preheat your oven to 350º. Take whatever pie dough you have left, roll it out and cut into long strips. Using a pastry brush or your fingers, brush milk on the strips. Sprinkle a combination of cinnamon and sugar onto the strips of dough.

Bake in the 350º oven for 10-15 minutes or until brown. Try not to eat them all before Neel gets home.

Is it the barely sweet that makes them so wonderful? Or is it the fact that we rarely have them? I'm not sure which. Callum and I contemplated just making a batch for the fun of it, and thought, nah, we'll wait for Ama. I think they taste better that way.

so, make cookies

baking history :: pie crust cookies {life}