Sablé Breton

Sablé Breton biscuits are a deliciously buttery French shortbread.  There are lots of recipes available and they are all basically the same, but with some minor differences.  For instance, some use baking powder while others don’t.  Some use ground almonds(almond flour) and flour where others just use flour.  But in essence they are pretty much the same.  

For mine I decided to use some finely ground almonds as that adds a different texture and extra flavour.  

The recipe is simple to make and the resultant biscuit is fantastic, a rich buttery shortbread that almost melts in the mouth.  Some people make them thinner than my recipe, and indeed I think maybe I made mine slightly thicker than necessary, but it really doesn’t matter.  Also it seems that straight sided biscuits, in a mould, are normal but they can also be placed straight onto a baking tray and allowed to spread as they bake, also they can be placed into a muffin tin and baked(the sloping side will be fine).  Another variation in recipes sees some people decorate the tops, after egg washing, using a fork to create a pattern. For mine I decided to leave them plain, it certainly doesn’t affect how they bake, or taste. 

These biscuits taste so good it is easy to eat more than one at a time.  Mine turned out very well indeed, with a slight sinking but perfectly baked.  I deliberately only made a small number as that suited my purpose, but doubling the recipe and slicing slightly thinner would give about 30 biscuits.

I thoroughly recommend this as great tasting recipe.

Sablé Breton – Video

Ingredients:

• 125g (1 cup) Pastry or plain flour
• 150g (1 stick + 2 1/2 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
• 90g(2/3 cup) icing sugar
• 1 medium egg yolk(large in USA) 
• 45g(3/8 cup) finely ground almonds/almond flour
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

Method: (I used a hand mixer for all the mixing)

1. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth.
2. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix until combined
3. Add the ground almonds and mix until combined.
4. Add the salt to the flour and add into the butter mixture then mix until it just comes together.
5. Place the dough onto some plastic wrap and roll into a sausage shape about 25cm/12 inches long.
6. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
7. Preheat the oven to 160C/325F.
8. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap.
9. Straighten the ends if necessary and cut into 12 – 16 equal sized slices.
10. Place each slice into the base of a mould or tin(I used a 12 hole tin with straight sides but a muffin tin is fine. 
11. Gently press the dough to spread to almost cover the base.
12. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown especially around the edges.
13. Cool for a couple of minutes in the tin and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.