Sables

After so many posts about vegetables, I thought maybe some chocolate would be in order. And some sugar, and some butter. Because, after all, what would life be without chocolate, sugar, and butter? Especially when they bake up in the form of cookies!

A fair warning: this is not a recipe for your last minute party! While beginning cooks should be able to make this recipe easily--it does take some patience. First you have to hard boil an egg. Then you have to make your dough. Third, you have to refrain from eating your dough while it hardens in the fridge. Halfway through the cooling period, you get to roll it out, and then put it back in the fridge. Next you get to slice and bake your lovely cookies. At this point, you get to eat some of your cookies-- but not the sandwich ones, which get to be iced and then cooled again.

Whew! But after all that work, you have these lovelies all ready for your next dessert or tea party:

P.S. This recipe is far less work if you only make the plain vanilla or chocolate kind. But since when I have ever made just one kind of anything??

Sables are French Butter Cookies, or basically a sandier form of regular butter cookies. The sandy texture makes the cookie melt in your mouth, but it has all the delicious taste of a butter cookie. Sweet, with a slight crunch, and oh-so-addicting!

Chocolate and Vanilla Sables

From Cook's Illustrated

Vanilla Sable Ingredients:

1 large egg, hardboiled

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon egg whites, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon water

4 teaspoons turbinado sugar (also known as sugar-in-the-raw)

Chocolate Sable Ingredients

1 large egg, hardboiled

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup dutch-processed cocoa (I used Hershey's cocoa powder)

1 teaspoon egg whites, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon water

4 teaspoons turbinado sugar (also known as sugar-in-the-raw)

Instructions

1) Peel egg and remove yolk. Push yolk through a fine mesh strainer.

2) Place yolk, butter, and sugar in a bowl, and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy (about four minutes). Add vanilla and mix on low speed until incorporated. Add flour (and cocoa powder, for chocolate), and mix until just combined.

3) Press dough into a cohesive mass. Divide in half, and roll into logs. Wrap tightly in wax paper and refrigerate until firm, about an hour.

4) When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice logs into 1/4 thick rounds, turning log as you slice, so the logs stay round. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Brush with egg white mixture and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake for about 15 minutes, until edges are slightly golden brown. Cool on baking sheet for five minutes, then cool completely on wire racks.

Chocolate-Vanilla Swirl Cookies

After step (3), refrigerate dough for half an hour, or until firm enough to handle. Roll dough into circles between two sheets of wax paper. Place chocolate dough on top of vanilla dough and role into a log. Press dough together if it cracks while you are rolling it. Refrigerate until very firm and continue with step (4).

Chocolate-Vanilla Sandwich Cookies

In step (4), slice dough into 1/8 inch rounds. Don't brush with egg yolk or sugar, and bake for 12-13 minutes, until done. When cookies are cool, melt chocolate chips and spread a thin layer on each cookie. Top with a second cookie, slightly offset so the chocolate shows. I used white chocolate for the chocolate cookies and chocolate for the vanilla cookies.