French Butter Cookies (Sables)

I bought the Cook’s Illustrated All Time Best French recipes magazine. I tried the French Butter Cookie (Sables) recipe from there. It’s such versatile recipe! I made one batch of vanilla sable dough, and one chocolate sable dough. I only used half of vanilla, and half of chocolate to make 4 different kinds of cookies: black and white spiral, chocolate sable, vanilla pretzel sable, and a Nutella with vanilla sable cookie sandwich. I stored everything else in the freezer. With the half of the vanilla dough, I further cut that into thirds, one third for the spiral, one third for the sandwich cookies, and one third for pretzels. With half of the chocolate dough, I used one third for the spiral, and the rest for chocolate sables. For the sugar on top, I used white, and gold sugar crystals.

This is the first time that I’ve used a cooked egg for the recipe! Usually, I use a raw egg. Cooks Illustrated discovered that by first boiling the egg, this reduced the water weight and made for a crunchier cookie. I tried mashing the egg yolk versus putting it through a strainer. Worked better using a strainer.

This cookie does take some time to make because it requires you to chill the dough in certain steps, but it’s quite delicious! I want to try to almond sable next!

Sables (~from Cook’s Illustrated)

Ingredients

1 large egg
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter , softened
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar (2 3/4 ounces)
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces)
4 teaspoons turbinado sugar (used sugar cookie crystals)
1 teaspoon large egg white , lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Almond Sables

Substitute 1.5 teaspoons almond extract for vanilla extract and add ½ cup slices almonds, finely ground (1/3 cup) to dough with flour. Omit turbinado sugar. After brushing cookies with egg white mixture, gently press 3 almond slices in petal shape in center of each cookie.

Chocolate Sables

Reduce flour to 1 1/3 cups and add ¼ cup Dutch processed cocoa with flour .

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Omit egg white mixture and turbinado sugar. In step 4, slice dough log into 1/8 inch rounds and bake as directed in step 5, reducing baking time to 10 to 13 min. Repeat with second dough log. When all cookies are cooled, melt 3.5 oz dark or milk chocolate and let cook slightly. When cookies are cooled, spread melted chocolate on bottom of 1 cookie. Place second cookie on top, slightly off-center so come chocolate shows. Repeat with remaining cookies.

Black and white spiral
Follow recipes for Sables and Chocolate sables through step 2, omitting egg white mixture and turbinado sugar. Halve each batch of dough; rollout each on parchment into 8 by 6 inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. Briefly chill dough until firm enough to handle. Using bench scraper, place 1 plain dough rectangle on top of 1 chocolate dough rectangle. Repeat to make 2 double chocolate rectangles. Rollout each double rectangle on parchment into 9 by 6 inch rectangle. Starting at long end, roll each into tight log. Twist ends of parchment to seal. Chill logs for 1 hour (I only chilled for 30 min). Slice logs into ¼ inch rounds and bake as directed in step 5.

Directions

Place egg in small saucepan, cover with 1 inch water, and bring to boil over high heat. Remove pan from heat, cover, and let sit 10 minutes. Meanwhile, fill small bowl with ice water. Using slotted spoon, transfer egg to ice water and let stand 5 minutes. Crack egg and peel shell. Separate yolk from white; discard white. Press yolk through fine-mesh strainer into small bowl. (Better to put through strainer than mashing with spoon)

In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter, granulated sugar, salt, and cooked egg yolk on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl and beater with rubber spatula as needed. Turn mixer to low, add vanilla, and mix until incorporated. Stop mixer; add flour and mix on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds. Using rubber spatula, press dough into cohesive mass.

Divide dough in half; roll each piece into log about 6 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap each log in 12-inch square of parchment paper and twist ends to seal and firmly compact dough into tight cylinder (see illustrations below). Chill until firm, about 1 hour.

Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350°. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Using chef’s knife, slice dough into ¼-inch-thick rounds, rotating dough so that it won’t become misshapen from weight of knife. Place cookies 1 inch apart on baking sheets. Using pastry brush, gently brush cookies with egg white mixture and sprinkle evenly with untoasted sweetened coconut.

Bake until centers of cookies are pale golden brown with edges slightly darker than centers, about 15 minutes (baked 11 min and 30 sec for ¼ inch cookies and 8 min for thinner 1/8 inch cookies for sandwiches), rotating baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes; using thin metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature. Store cooled cookies between sheets of parchment paper in airtight container for up to 1 week.