German Sand Cookies - Heidesand

This version contains nuts. Translated from "Back vergnuegen wie noch nie," one of my favorite German language cookbooks, acquired while living in Germany. German vanilla sugar comes in small paper packets and can be found in German markets - it is very fine & sparkly.

• Ready In: 3 hrs 20 mins
• Yields: 70 cookies

Ingredients

• 250  g sweet unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 170  g granulated sugar, divided
• 125  g  finely ground  almonds or 125  g hazelnuts
• 375  g all-purpose flour
• 2  envelopes  vanilla sugar (approx 2 tsp per envelope)

Directions

1. Beat butter until light and fluffy using an electric mixer.
2. Measure out just 125 grams of the granulated sugar and add to the butter, mixing well.
3. Using a spoon, stir in the ground nuts, the flour, and 1 envelope of vanilla sugar (if you use the mixer now, you may toughen the dough).
4. Form dough into two logs and wrap well in waxed paper; let chill until firm, at least 2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 150 C.
6. Have ready baking sheets lined with parchment paper (or greased).
7. Slice off rounds of dough, about 1 cm thick, and place onto baking sheets.
8. Bake in the center of the oven approximately 20 minutes per batch (they will be fairly light in color when ready).
9. While the cookies are baking, mix together the remaining 45 grams of granulated sugar and the remaining envelope of vanilla sugar and place in a bowl.
10. When you pull the cookies out of the oven,give them a few seconds to cool enough to handle, then gently drop the warm cookies one at a time into the sugar mixture to coat, then let them cool completely.
11. They should be covered in the sugar mixture on all sides.