Sablé are a type of French shortbread cookie noted for their crumbly, melt in your mouth consistency. In fact, the French word sablé means sand, and when you work the dough of these cookies it does feel a bit like playing with fine sand. However the similarities end there. These cookies are delicious and don’t taste like sand at all, HOWEVER, I was a little inspired by the ocean to add a bit of high quality sea salt to these sea salt chocolate sable cookies.
Many people have done salted caramel before, so this is similar to that. And in fact it really isn’t anything new. People have been adding salt to baked goods for centuries, the difference is I add a bit more than what would be commonly accepted. I originally made these cookies as a with sea salt as a base for my Butterfly Pea Flower Entremet With Chocolate Sable, but they are excellent enough to stand as their own recipe.
The first thing you need to do is cream together some room temperature butter and sugar, along with the high quality sea salt and some vanilla extract. I used a flaky Greek sea salt I picked up on my last trip to Corfu, but any good sea salt will work. I would avoid salt that is too fine however.
When the butter is creamed with the other ingredients I add the sifted flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. There’s no need to add this slowly, you can add it all at once. I use a kitchen towel to cover my stand mixer so the powders don’t shoot everywhere, but I do put the paddle on medium high. These cookies are a bit like biscuits so you definitely do not want to overwork them. Mix fast and then stop.
After it is combined (but still crumbly) I press the dough into a sort of rectangular loaf which I then wrap in plastic. I use a rolling pin to squeeze out the air and then place the entire thing in the fridge for 2 hours. You can really leave it in the fridge as long as you want until you are ready to make the sea salt chocolate sable cookies.
Once the dough is chilled i take it from the fridge and roll it out into a sheet. The edges will crack and crumble…DO NOT WORRY. This is totally normal, you can smoosh the dough back together and roll it out as many times as you need. I try to get the sheet to about half a centimeter in height. Then I use a ring mold to cut out perfect circles, but you could use any shape cookie cutter you like.
I place the cookies on a silicone baking mat, but you can use parchment paper if you like. Then they go into the freezer for 15 minutes. The colder they are the less deformed they will get, which was important since I was using them as a base for the entremet. Then they go into an oven pre-heated to 175 Celsius for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I pull them out and let them sit on the baking tray for 5 minutes before moving the cookies. Enjoy your Sea Salt Chocolate Sable with a nice glass of cold milk, or if you’re more like-minded, a Jack Rose cocktail with French Calvados.
Sea Salt Chocolate Sable
Equipment
- Baking Tray
- Stand Mixer (optional, but highly helpful)
- Cookie Cutters
- rolling pin
Ingredients
- 175 grams Flour AP
- 30 grams Cocoa Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 150 grams Butter room temperature
- 170 grams Sugar granulated
- 1 tsp Sea Salt high quality
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- In a stand mixer on paddle attachment cream together the butter and sugar and salt and vanilla extract.
- Sift in the flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Let run until everything is combined but not overmixed.
- Pour out the mixture onto the table and knead it into a ball. Wrap it in plastic wrap and then use a rolling pin to shape it into a rectangle sheet. Place in fridge for two hours.
- Remove and roll out a sheet about a half cm high. Use a ring mold or circular cookie cutter to cut out disks. Place them on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet.
- Put in the oven at 175 Celsius for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool on the tray for 5 minutes. Store them in an airtight container.
