SANDIES

SANDIES ARE A TYPE OF ICEBOX OR SLICE-AND-bake cookie that relies on ground nuts to take the place of some flour. Their texture is fine and light, but these cookies are crisp rather than crumbly. In some ways, they are like shortbread cookies packed with nuts.

We found that ground nuts give the dough a rich flavor. However, we found it necessary to add some chopped nuts for texture (it's nice to have a bit of crunch) and appearance.

We experimented with various sweeteners, trying to find one that would highlight the flavor of the nuts. Maple syrup gives the dough a great flavor, but liquid sweeteners (we also tried molasses) make the dough sticky and the cookies bake up heavy and leaden.

We tried using brown sugar and liked the caramel flavor, which works especially well with nuts. Either light or dark brown sugar is fine in this cookie, but dark brown gives better color and a stronger molasses flavor. Again, we liked the effect of a little confectioners' sugar in this dough. It helps give sandies their fine, delicate texture.

We tried adding baking powder (and later baking soda), but we found leaveners make these cookies too cakey. We like sandies that are fairly thick and found that slicing them thick was the best way to get some height in the finished product.