These chocolate sablés are sooo good.
Chocolatier Fran Bigelow’s recipe incorporates potato flour, which gives the cookies a tender, crumbly texture that makes them irresistible. These quantities result in a lot of cookies – Bigelow says 60 to 75. I made two logs from the dough and immediately froze the larger one – as it was, the smaller roll made well over 20 cookies. There aren’t many left now though…
Chocolate Sablés
(adapted from a recipe in Fran Bigelow’s Pure Chocolate)
- 240g (8oz) semisweet chocolate (I used Callebaut 811 54% cacao)
- 250g (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 220g (1 cup)white sugar
- 1 large (59g) egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used homemade)
- 140g (just under 1 cup) plain (AP) flour (originally recipe specified 1 cup cake flour, but we can’t get that here)
- 170g (1 cup) potato starch flour
- 55g (½ cup) Dutch-processed cocoa
- pinch of salt
- Demerara or raw sugar for decorating
1. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, potato flour and cocoa together. Even if you don’t normally sift, make an exception this time, or the cocoa and potato flour will be lumpy and won’t mix properly. I think the sifting also lightens the flour to create a crumblier cookie. Stir in the salt.
2. Melt the chocolate in the microwave on high – use short bursts and stir frequently, making sure you don’t scorch the chocolate. Allow this to cool, but not set up.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium until smooth and pale, then add the sugar and continue beating until smooth. Scrape down the sides often and expect to beat the mixture for a good 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the egg and vanilla until blended. Add the melted chocolate and mix on low to medium until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as required.
5. Add the flour mixture and mix at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix. Finish by stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula if there are little bits of flour left unincorporated.
6. Put the bowl in the fridge for 10 – 20 minutes until the dough is firm enough to handle, but not too stiff.
7. Place a large sheet of parchment paper on the counter, and pour over a generous amount of Demerara sugar (about ¼ cup, but I was just eyeballing it). Shape half the dough into a thick log (about 6cm or 2½” in diameter) and roll it in the sugar until the sides are well coated (leave the ends uncoated). Wrap the log in a sheet of parchment or cling film and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Repeat with the remaining dough. The logs can remain in the fridge for up to 3 days, or frozen for longer storage.
8. When it’s time to bake, preheat the oven to 175C/350F or 160C /320F(fan assisted). Remove a log of dough from the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature for about 10 minutes.
9. Slice the log into 6mm/¼” thick discs (or for any sewers out there, the width of a standard seam allowance). Lay the slices onto parchment lined trays, leaving 2½ cm/1″ between each.
10. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, until the cookies have expanded and move slightly when very gently prodded. Bigelow’s instructions say to bake “until the tops are dull”. Remove the sablés from the oven and allow them to rest very briefly before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool. They’re very fragile – be prepared to eat any broken ones!
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