Your Very Own Sand Dollar

On a Friday night I ventured through my mom's recipe books and I came to find a book called "Favorite Brand Name Cookie Collection" which was so great because it had recipes for Christmas cookies,brownies, bars and every other cookie you could think of to make. The recipe that I found from the book was for buttery jam tarts;however they looked a lot like sand dollars that you find on the sandy beaches so I decided that it was a more interesting title or name to give them.

These neat looking tarts have a beautiful appearance with its delicious flavor combination of

buttery,sweet,fruity and mild.Their wonderful texture is a mixture of soft,chewy crunchy,and layered.The recipe is simple to read and follow; however its somewhat time consuming due to the rolling and cutting out shapes till the dough is all gone.That is expected when you want to make these kinds of tarts with two layers,jam in the middle and a x or star like shape cut out in the middle of the top.Anyways, in all of that time, rolling and cutting out, its a lot of fun and experience to learn. In the end, you have some beautiful looking tart like cookies that are really great to impress people at a party,family gathering or to serve the children.

These sand dollar cookie also remind me when I was little going to the beach looking at all the shells and sand dollars. I loved the sand dollars beautiful purple shades with a star like imprint in the middle;however when they were no longer living they became hard,gray with a star print.The beach always seem like a great adventure when you were little when you went out to collect shells and looked at all the little sea creatures living under the rocks. It was a lot of fun exploring the beach just as its fun to explore all these neat and interesting recipe when your a little older. Try it out yourself.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Jam Tarts ( Adapted From Buttery Jam Tarts,"Favorite Brand Name Cookie Collection")

 (Printable Recipe)

Yields: 18 cookies (glass cup, larger then 2 1/2 inches)
Yields: 18+ ( 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter)

2 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup butter,softened

1 egg

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp almond extract

3/4 cup strawberry jam

Sugar for sprinkling

1. Oven on to 350F

2.  In a large bowl ,beat flour, sugar, butter(Room temp,cut into small pieces), baking soda, salt, milk and almond extract. Till well combined

 

3. Lightly flour your working surface and roll out dough about half at a time.Roll to about 1/8 thickness. Use 2 1/2  round cookie cutter or a glass cup. When done cutting be sure to have a even amount of rounds. (Each cookie should have a top)

4. Place half of the cookies on a nonstick pan or ungreased cookie sheet.

5. For the remaining cookies you can either make a small X by using a butter knife to cut through the dough or use a very small cookie cutter example a star or a round.


6. Place about tbsp of strawberry jam on the whole cookies. Place the cut cookies on top of the whole cookies and press edges with a fork. ( Tip:Wetting the whole cookie edges with cold water will help to seal).

7. Sprinkle sugar lightly on  top.


(Repeat 3-7 for the other half of dough).

8.Bake for 11- 13 minutes, until edges lightly browned.Remove immediately, cool and transfer to racks.
( watch these cookies carefully).