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I can’t tell you how old I was when I made my first batch of moldy mice cookies. What I can tell you is it’s one of my very favorites, and my mom’s too. It’s a staple Christmas cookie for us. In case you’re wondering, a Moldy Mice cookies are basically sand tarts. I’m not making cookies out of mice. Hehe.

If you make these for a cookie exchange, don’t forget to label that they have nuts!

The Moldy Mice recipe originally was inspired from the Charleston Receipt’s cookbook. As a little girl we made the cookies using my mom’s book, and now, when I make the cookies,I refer to my copy. Since ovens are more advanced then they were when this recipe was first made, and ingredients have changed too, I’ve made some tweaks to make it work for me.

Moldy Mice aka Sand Tarts

Ingredients for Sand Tarts
(modified from Charleston Receipts, from memory)
1 stick slightly softened butter
1 tbsp white sugar
1 cup bakers flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
confectioners sugar
bakers twine, cut into 2″ strings

Preparation for Sand Tarts
Preheat oven to 425.

Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer. Toss nuts with flour and then add to butter and sugar mixture, add vanilla extract and combine well, Mixture may appear crumbly. Shape into small “mice” about the size of your thumb, wrapping them around a string “tail”. If you make fat mice you’ll have about 24 cookies, if you make skinny mice you might get as many as 36. Bake for about 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately roll them into confectioners sugar. Be careful, they will be hot and they are fragile when they’re hot!

Print Recipe

Moldy Mice Cookies

Course: Cookies

Cuisine: American

Author: Kerri Jablonski

Ingredients

1 stick slightly softened butter
1 tbsp white sugar
1 cup bakers flour
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
confectioners sugar
bakers twine cut into 2" strings

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425.
Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer. Toss nuts with flour and then add to butter and sugar mixture, add vanilla extract and combine well, Mixture may appear crumbly. Shape into small "mice" about the size of your thumb, wrapping them around a string "tail". If you make fat mice you'll have about 24 cookies, if you make skinny mice you might get as many as 36. Bake for about 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately roll them into confectioners sugar. Be careful, they will be hot and they are fragile when they're hot!

Things to note: Watch your mice. Some flour scorches more easily than others, using parchment paper and even how seasoned your cookie sheet is all affects baking time of this cookie. You may have success dropping the cooking temperature to 400 instead of 425.