Sablées Hollandais

Now this biscuit recipe is from Le Cordon Blue book Patisserie and Baking Foundations – Classic Recipes.  I bought the book a few days ago and decided that this would be my first bake from it.

Other recipes seem to be called Sablés Hollandais, but I have stuck with the name as printed in my book.

The recipe takes a lot of egg yolks, so I have had to freeze the whites, to use later in another recipe.  The book gives some very easy to follow instructions, which I have replicated below, omitting the French names for things, where possible, and only giving instructions for the patterns I made.

It is a little fiddly to make these biscuits, having to chill the dough twice and layer it together to make the shapes.  I made two shapes, spirals and layers.  Of course it is possible to invent any number of different patterns, such as checkerboard.  With the excess pastry, I simply worked it together and chilled it, to create a marbling effect for a few extra biscuits.

My efforts turned out very nicely and they taste lovely, so well worth the time it took to make them.

Ingredients:
Vanilla Dough:

• 400g plain flour
• 4g baking powder
• 5 ml vanilla extract
• 200 g Icing sugar(powdered sugar)
• 15 ml water
• 4 egg yolks
• 200g softened butter

Chocolate Dough:

• 400g plain flour
• 4g baking powder
• 5 ml vanilla extract
• 200 g Icing sugar(powdered sugar)
• 15 ml water
• 4 egg yolks
• 200g softened butter
• 20g cocoa powder

Finishing:

• 1  egg for eggwash

Method:

1. First make a vanilla dough:
2. Sift the flour and baking powder together.
3. Place on a work surface and make a large well.
4. Int the centre of teh well, add the icing sugar and push it to the sides to reform the well.
5. Add the water, egg yolks and vanilla to the centre of the well and mix them together, while gradually incorporating the sugar.
6. Add the butter and work until combined.
7. Using a pastry scraper gradually incorporate the flour, from the sides of the well, by turning and cutting it into the rest of the ingredients.
8. Once the dough forms and just holds together, gather it into a ball and smear it away from yourself with the heel of your palm. Continue this action until the dough is smooth.  Then warp it in plastic and chill.
9. For the chocolate dough follow the previous instructions, except and you should mix the sifted cocoa powder in directly after the butter is added to the well.

Assembly:

1. For a layered biscuit roll the chocolate and vanilla dough into strips and then stack in alternating colours, using egg wash between the layers.
2. Wrap the stacked layers in cling film and chill.
3. For spirals, roll out layers of the chocolate and vanilla dough.  Brush a layer of egg wash on the vanilla dough and then lay the chocolate layer on top.
4. Trim the edges of the dough and then roll it up, tighly.
5. Wrap in cling film and chill.
6. While the dough is chilling pre-heat the oven to 170c
7. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut into slices no thicker that 5mm.
8. Arrange on a clean baking sheet.
9. Bake until the edges just begin to colour.
10. Place on a wire rack to cool.