Baking with Dorie, Sables


Today's recipe can be found on page 131 of Baking with Dorie, from my Home to Yours. You can check out the other bakers here.

Today was my turn to choose! I wanted a cookie that would be good for Christmas baking. I love shortbread and this is wonderful. I rolled some in pecans, and some in sugar. I think I liked the pecans the best!

They were rich and buttery...and easy to make, which is always a bonus!


Sables

2 sticks {8 ounces} unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp. salt, preferably fine sea salt
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
2 c. flour
decorating {coarse} sugar

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until smooth and very creamy. Add the sugars and salt and beat until well blended, about 1 minute. The mixture should be smooth and velvety, not fluffy and airy. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the eggs yolks, again beating until the mixture is homogeneous.

Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour, drape a kitchen towel over he stand mixer to protect yourself from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed 5 times, a second or tow each time. Take a peek- if there is still a lot of lour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple more times: if not remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 0 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough and the dough looks uni formally moist. If most of the flour is incorporated, but you've;e still got some in the bottom of the bowl, use a rubber spatula to work the rest of the flour into the dough.} The dough will not clean the sides of the bowl, nor will it come together in a ball-and it shouldn't. You want to work the dough as little as possible. What you're aiming for is a soft,moist,clumpy{rather than smooth} dough. Pinch it, and it will feel a little like Play-Dough.

Scrape the dough out onto a smooth work surface, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each piece into a smooth log about 9 inches long: it's easiest to work on a piece of plastic wrap and use the plastic to help form the log. Wrap the logs well and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours, preferably longer.{ The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.}

Getting ready to bake:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

Remove a log of dough from the refrigerator, unwrap it and place it o a piece of parchment paper or wax paper. Whisk the egg yolk until smooth, and brush some of the yolk all over the sides of the dough-this is the glue-then sprinkle the entire surface of the log with decorating sugar.

Trim the ends of the roll if they're ragged, and slice the log into 1/3 inch thick cookies. {You can make these as thick as 1/2 inch or as thin as-bit no thinner- than 1/4 inch." Place the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving an inch of space between them.

Bake one sheet at a time for 17 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet at the midway point. When properly baked, the cookies will be light brown on the bottom, lightly golden around the edges and pale on the top: they may feel tender when you touch the top gently,a nd that's fine. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest a minute or two before carefully lifting them onto a rack with a wide metal spatula to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remaining log of dough, making sure the baking sheets are cool before the second batch.




10 comments:

Needful Things said...

I love that you rolled them in pecans! That's a great idea and I might do something similar with my remaining dough.
Thanks for baking with us this week :)

Anonymous said...

What a great idea to add nuts around the outside. They are a beautifiul yellow.

You made a great choice.

I am posting mine now. I baked them, a little while ago and had to get the photos.

Katerina said...

The addition of nuts sure increases the taste of these beautiful cookies. And this sugar sprinkled above them just takes off pleasure.

♥Sugar♥Plum♥Fairy♥ said...

Laurie, i wanna thank u , for ur perfect pick!!
This is ,my first time with Shortbread and didn know then to be so buttery and totally melt in ur mouth kind!
Oh so good!I tired a few variations too and loved them all , a really good recipe and have some Christmas goodies too!
I jus have a few pics to get up and then my post will be up:-)
Thannnk u again for a wonderful pick!
And yeah ur cookies look fantastic!

Unknown said...

I am up to my ears in cookies over here - this would be a nice one for sure to add to my list!

Brownieville Girl said...

At first glance I thought it was a slice of pineapple!!!

Your sables look fantastic.

laurie said...

They do look like slices of pineapple!

dorie said...

Very, very nice. Sables are among my favorite cookies and I didn't realize that they hadn't been chosen yet -- you got them in just at the perfect moment: right before the holidays! I really like your idea of rolling them in nuts.

Tina said...

OMG Laurie, did you realise Dorie commented on your blog? That is so exciting!! :)

These were buttery heaven, so thank you for picking this recipe this week!!

rebecca @ beurrista said...

Really, really loved this pick. In fact, another batch is in the oven right now! I like that I can freeze the dough (sprinkles on after defrosting) and they are good to go.