I do love Sablé biscuits. They are light and crumbly. The meaning of the word sablé means ‘sandy’ in French. Which perfectly describes the light and crumbly texture. Whenever I think of butter biscuits sablé comes to mind.
For this particular recipe I have included sweetened coconut. That goes so well with the biscuit. The coconut gives a little chew to accompany the light texture. However you could omit the coconut if you just want a simple sablé.
I used sweetened shredded coconut. But desiccated coconut would work too. Since desiccated coconut is not usually sold in a sweetened form I would toss it in a little icing sugar.
Shredded coconut can have long shreds so I chopped mine much finer, since I wanted it to mix well into the biscuit dough. I also needed it finely chopped to sprinkle on the top of the biscuits.
The recipe is very simple. However there is some waiting time, since the dough has to firm up before slicing. But that waiting time doesn’t require effort, it just delays how quickly you can eat the biscuits.
The dough is made very easily, then it is chilled until firm enough to slice. After slicing the dough each slice is brushed with some egg white before more coconut is sprinkled over the top.
Although I am a big fan of dunking biscuits I would not do that with these Coconut Sablés since they are so light they would be likely to disintegrate.
My Bake
My biscuits baked perfectly. I left them on the baking tray for 5 minutes. Then I transferred them to a wire rack. I let them cool completely on the rack. Then it was time to sample the biscuits.
They had a perfect texture. The biscuits were light and crumbly. They almost melted in the mouth, with just the little chew on the pieces of sweetened coconut. The coconut on top became lightly toasted too, adding more flavour.
These are simple a wonderful little treat to enjoy with my cup of tea in the afternoon.
I have lots of easy baking recipes on the blog, such as Lemon Ricotta Cookies.
Easy Coconut Sablés
Course: Biscuits, CookiesDifficulty: Easy36
servings15
minutes15
minutesIngredients
210g(1 1/3 cups + 1 tbsp, based on scooping packed flour into a 250ml cup) plain flour
66g(1/3 cup) caster sugar
140g(1 stick + 2 tbsp) softened unsalted butter
60g(2/3 cup) finely chopped sweetened shredded coconut, divided in 2. (for desiccated coconut see note below)
5ml(1 tsp) vanilla extract
a good pinch of salt
1 hard boiled egg yolk
1 medium egg white(large in USA)
Directions
- Place the sugar and butter into a large bowl.
- Push the hard boiled egg yolk through a sieve onto those ingredients.
- Cream the sugar, butter and egg yolk until pale and fluffy.
- Add the salt and vanilla extract and mix well, until combined.
- Mix half of the coconut into the flour and then add that to the creamed butter.
- Mix in, gently, until just combined and it can easily be pressed into a dough.
- Divide the dough into two equal parts and roll them into 6 inch/15cm logs.
- Wrap each log in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge until very firm and easy to slice. This might take 2 to 3 hours(mine was 3 hours).
- As the dough chills you may wish to roll again to make the log more rounded.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350 F.
- LIne a couple of baking trays with parchment paper.
- Beat the egg white with a teaspoon of water.
- Slice each of the logs into about 1/4 inch(6mm) slices and place each on the baking tray leaving about an inch between each slice.
- Brush the top of the slices with the egg white.
- Sprinkle the remaining coconut on the top and gently press down.
- Bake the biscuits for 15 minutes.
- Remove the biscuit from the oven and leave them on the trays for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Desiccated coconut can be used but, since it is usually unsweetened, toss it in a tablespoon of icing sugar before using.