Submitter's name:	Steve Goss
Title:	Sandtarts (Pennsylvania Dutch style)
Gear used:	OM4T, Zuiko 24mm f2.8, Bounce grip 2, T32, Winder 1
Diaphragm:	Not recorded
Shutter speed:	1/60 auto flash sync
Film used:	Kodachrome 64
Digital trickery:	Digital scan by Walmart Neighborhood Grocery. A whole lot of despeckling, curve adjusting, unsharp masking and sharpening to try to salvage the image.
Subject information:	Making Sandtarts has been a family Christmas tradition for almost 40 years now. Every year my mom would ask my dad what kind of cookies he would like at Christmas. He always said sandtarts, so my mom would make some thick crescent shaped cookies covered with powdered sugar. That's what you get in Texas. After about 10 years of married life she found out that he wanted the Pennsylvania Dutch kind that his mom made in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. We've been making them ever since. It takes a crew of three or more people to roll out the dough and cut it, decorate, and watch the oven.
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Comment left by: Brian Swale (no e-mail specified)

These remind me of Dutch ontbuijtkoek and spekulaas which have made their way to New Zealand. One of them - or maybe another the name of which I have forgotten, is made by pressing the mixture into shapes made in a special wooden plank using a router or chisel. If you are familiar of these kinds of things, they are very evocative of cultures moving between countries.

Comment left by: Olaf Greve (no e-mail specified)

Brian, it's the 'spekulaas' that looks a bit like these cookies, though it is much browner and tastes differently, of course. :) The 'ontbijtkoek' is great too (IMO), and that is the type that rather resembles a cake, shapewise. Funnily enough this picture reminds me a lot of my brother in law (who's an American), as he always makes such cookies on special occassions (and at times just for fun) too. I never realised they were of dutch descent. :P

Comment left by: Anonymous (no e-mail specified)

Just a clarification. "Pennsylvania Dutch" is actually a misnomer. It's more properly "Pennsylvania Deutsch", since they were originally from Germany. I don't know whether these cookies have a basis in the old country, or whether like shoo fly pie they are a result of making do in the new country.

Comment left by: Gregg Iverson (no e-mail specified)

In Michigan we just knew them as "Sugar Cookies"

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