How to Make NaNa's Sand Tarts Cookie {Recipe} (2024)

FAQs

Do you put colored sugar on cookies before or after baking? ›

Decorate Before Baking

Place 1/4 cup (2 oz.) of granulated sugar into a small, zipper top baggie. Add 3 to 4 drops of food color of your choice. Zip the top closed, and shake the bag around to distribute the color.

Take plain sugar cookies up a notch with exciting mix-ins like chocolate chips, rainbow sprinkles, toasted chopped nuts, chopped dried fruit or M&M's. Add these after blending your butter and egg into the sugar cookie mix. This is our favorite hack for holiday Pillsbury cookie dough.

If you wanted to use it on baked cookies, either sprinkle it on freshly frosted cookies or brush cooled cookies with an egg white-wash before applying so the sugar will stay put. Uses for sanding sugar go way beyond the cookie—from cupcakes to holiday co*cktails, it won't be hard to use up the jar!

The secret to rock-solid finishing sugar that doesn't come off is egg whites. They act as a sticky glue, and keep the sugar sealed tightly to the rim of the glass.

For this technique, you'll want to decorate your cookies before baking. We recommend using decorative sugar (also known as colored sanding sugar), Turbinado sugar (coarse golden sugar) or pearl sugar (coarse clear sugar). It all sounds super fancy but it's really very easy!

While the cookies are still warm from the oven you can press sprinkles gently into the slightly soft surface. If you want better adhesion you can brush the cookie with corn syrup and then dip it into the sprinkles. Once the corn syrup sets the sprinkles will be solidly stuck to the surface.

Flatten cookies slightly with a spatula. Sprinkle tops with sanding sugar, then lightly brush with a wet pastry brush; sprinkle with more sanding sugar. Bake cookies until golden, about 15 minutes.

Nutrition facts (each cookie): About 105 calories, 1 g protein, 8 g carbohydrate, 8 g total fat (4 g saturated), 1 g fiber, 15 mg cholesterol, 55 mg sodium.

Sand tarts by DEBBIE-JO'S contains 90 calories per 28 g serving. This serving contains 2.5 g of fat, 1 g of protein and g of carbohydrate. The latter is 10 g sugar and g of dietary fiber, the rest is complex carbohydrate.

How many carbs are in sand tarts? ›

Sugar sweetens the cookies and makes them an enticing golden brown. Adding too little sugar can affect the taste and texture of cookies. Adding too much can cause them to be brittle. Take your time creaming the sugar and butter together at the beginning.

If the baked cookies taste a bit bland (and if the dough is fairly soft and receptive to additions), add salt and/or spices to the remaining dough before baking. If, on the other hand, they're a bit salty for your taste, try rolling the dough balls in sugar before baking.

When cookie dough is too sticky, you may have an imbalance of wet and dry ingredients. You can fix this by adding a teaspoon of flour or cornstarch at a time until your dough is just how you want. The added flour or cornstarch will absorb the excess liquid and reduce the dough's overall stickiness.

You can add it both ways, if you add it before baking the sugars will caramelize during baking. If you add them after baking make sure to add the sugar right after taking them out of the oven, this way they will attach to the cookie. If you mix cinnamon and caster sugar is a great flavor for plain shortbread cookies.

For a light dusting of color: Use colored sugars, non-pareils or jimmies on cookies. Sprinkle evenly on cookie, then press lightly. For more vibrant colors: Place a smaller or same-size cutter on the cookie. Pour sprinkles or colored sugars inside cutter and spread evenly over cookie.