Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Short but sweet...and buttery




Look, it's not a 12 Days of Cookies post!  And yet, it's still about cookies.  =)  Specifically, this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Sablés.  It was picked by Barbara of Bungalow Barbara.  I've actually baked these before--I made the lemon version as my 2008 Taste of Yellow contribution, and decorated the edges with yellow sugar.  This time, I wanted to go with something more traditional for the holidays.

I did actually buy some European-style butter for these, since it's the featured ingredient.  Plus I knew I would use the rest with all the cookie baking I've been doing.  For flavoring, I went with vanilla--bean, not extract.  I split one of my Tahitian vanilla beans and scraped out the seeds.  I rubbed them into the granulated sugar for the recipe so they would be more evenly dispersed in the dough.  Other than that, I pretty much followed the recipe as written.  As Dorie mentions in the book, I used paper towel tubes to keep the logs of dough round while they were chilling.  For the decoration, I used a combination of red, green and white sparkling sugar.  I was lazy and didn't use an egg wash to glue the sugar to the logs--I just pressed the sugar into the outside of the dough.  I used my serrated knife to slice the log into rounds, and baked them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.



The verdict?  Exactly what I expected--buttery and not too sweet, with a crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth texture.  These are really wonderful cookies--great for the holidays or any other time.  Brianna and Gillian were eager to have them for dessert tonight, which is always a good sign. =)  I'll definitely be making them again, and am looking forward to trying more variations.  In fact, I still have one log of dough in the fridge, so I may try something else on the outsides of that one.

Want to try these yourself?  Head over to Barbara's blog for the recipe.  And while you're there, check out some of the awesome cakes she bakes and all the great recipe notes that she shares.  And don't forget to visit the rest of the TWD bakers to see what they did with this week's recipe!



10 comments:

  1. Very pretty, and I love the little snowman mug!

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  2. Your cookies look great. I like the seasonal sprinkles.

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  3. I'm totally impressed by the perfect roundness of your cookies! They are quite festive with the colored sugar. I think finely ground nuts would be great on the edges of the plain flavors.

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  4. Thank you for baking along with me this week!

    I'm glad you liked them!

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  5. I definitely have to try the basic recipe. Everyone is describing it as simply delicious. They look wonderfully good, Di.

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  6. Lemon Sables was the first recipe I made of Dories and these cookies are wonderful. And they would be be the perfect cookie for Christmas too. Love the sugared edges!

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  7. I've never tried the paper towel tube trick, but your cookies look perfect, so I'm really going to have to remember it next time! I made the spice version and loved them. I want to try them all! I love the festive sugar you coated your cookies with, it is just lovely!

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  8. I think you were the the one to put the idea for vanilla bean sables in my head. They're the first ones I want to try among the many variations I have in mind! Yours look fantastic! It was so much fun to make them festive this week.

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  9. Christmas sugar sprinkles!! Snowman!! Were we attached to the same brain that day?? I loved the way the red/green sprinkles turned these into a Christmas cookie. And so good.

    Yours look perfect!!! Love the mug.

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