Sand Tarts

My mother moved to the Rio Grande Valley and specifically Rio Grande City shortly after World War II where my Dad had been offered a job. My parents, a newly married young couple, made new friends and began their life together. They spent quite a bit of time bonding with their friends by partying in Mexico enjoying the food and dancing into the wee hours of the night. Of course nothing ever stays the same and everyone moved on with my family ending up in McAllen but still located the valley. One of my mother's very best friends named Chichi moved back to McAllen from the Dominican Republic after living all over the world. I loved sitting at the kitchen table listening to all their stories. One particular afternoon Chichi served the most amazing sand tarts I had ever tasted, in fact, I had never really cared for them until I tasted these! I told her I absolutely had to have her recipe and she just laughed and said of course!
Years later, planning Alexandra's beach wedding (my middle daughter) we were tossing around ideas for the wedding cake. We all decided it was a bad idea to have a cake on the beach with the sand and wind blowing. Samantha came up with the idea of having sand tarts in a decorated see through cookie canister as part of the table decorations in loo of a wedding cake. These cookies taste very similar to the Mexican wedding cookie so we thought how perfect and they would be protected from any possible blowing sand. We considered buying them but we couldn't find any that tasted as good as the ones I make so Samantha sweetly offered to make them a couple of days ahead and take them to the beach for us.

She totally made a bijillion of them! They were so delicious our guests kept asking where we had gotten them and when we told them we made them they all wanted the recipe!

1 C  unsalted butter, softened
1/3  C granulated sugar
2 t vanilla (I use Mexican vanilla, La Vencedora)
2 C all purpose flour
1 C pecans finely chopped
Cream butter and sugar then add the rest of the ingredients until incorporated. Form dough into a disk then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled. Take the dough out and shape into whatever shape you like and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. Cool a bit then roll the cookies in powdered sugar and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
These cookies stay good for a long time in an airtight container.