Welcome to day five of the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies on WLOW! Today’s recipe is from a cookbook I thought I’d never get. If you’re not familiar with the James Beard award, it’s like an Oscar for chefs. The Essential James Beard Cookbook is subtitled – 450 recipes that shaped the tradition of American cooking. Now, I don’t know that these cookies shaped out culinary state, but they’re good, and easy to make a have cinnamon – which is basically the definition of a good Christmas cookie.
While I’ve been on a cookie and holiday kick, I’ve also been putting my hat into a few giveaways. And today started giveaway #2 and #3 for December. In case you missed the $500 Merry Moolah Giveaway, you can ENTER HERE.
And if you head over to THIS POST you can enter to win a prize pack containing A Few of My Favorite Brownie Things and a KitchenAid Pro Stand Mixer. Yeah.

Sand Tarts
Ingredients
For Cookies:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups sifted cake flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
For Topping:
- 2 egg whites
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
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Beat together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg and vanilla, mix to combine.
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In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, mix until just combined.
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Wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheets with a Sil-Pat or parchment paper; set aside.
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Roll out dough to 1/4" thick, and cut into 3" rounds. Transfer cookie dough rounds to prepared baking sheets.
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In a small bowl, beat egg whites with a fork. Use a pastry brush to coat the top of each cookie round with egg white. In another small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over top of cookies.
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Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 1 minute on baking sheet. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.