Sablés bretons
Breton cookies whose name means sandy — for the way they crumble in the mouth. Brittany is famous for salted butter — exempt from the gabelle salt tax, it made salted butter an everyday staple. It is what gives these cookies their flavour: the salt lifts the sweetness and the butter's aroma. Two rules: mix the dough as little as possible, as gluten kills the crumble, and bake in metal rings so the thick discs do not spread in the oven.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Chilling 120 min
- Cutting and glazing 10 min
- Baking 18 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneCream the butter with sugar
Cream the soft salted butter with the sugar for 2–3 minutes, until pale. Beat in the yolks one at a time and the vanilla. Do not beat long — an aerated dough gives light, dry cookies instead of dense, crumbly ones.
Ingredients: 150 g salted butter · 120 g sugar · 3 pcs egg yolks · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp flaky salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Just until pale — do not aerate.Fold in the flour as briefly as possible
Sieve in the flour with the baking powder and fleur de sel and fold with a spatula only until combined. The dough will be very soft and sticky — correct. Every extra stroke develops gluten and toughens the cookies.
Ingredients: 150 g salted butter · 120 g sugar · 3 pcs egg yolks · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp flaky salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Shape a thick log
Tip the dough onto baking paper and roll it into a log 5 cm across, twisting the paper tight. Square off the ends. The log gives round cookies without rolling out a dough that is far too soft.
Ingredients: 150 g salted butter · 120 g sugar · 3 pcs egg yolks · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp flaky salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
A log in paper — too soft to roll out.Chill two hours
Chill the log at least 2 hours, until completely firm. So much butter needs a long chill — soft dough squashes under the knife and the cookies lose their round shape.
Ingredients: 150 g salted butter · 120 g sugar · 3 pcs egg yolks · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp flaky salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Slice into thick discs
Cut the log with a sharp knife into discs 1 cm thick. Sablés bretons are thick — that is what separates them from thin Normandy sablés. Thin ones dry out instead of staying tender inside.
Ingredients: 150 g salted butter · 120 g sugar · 3 pcs egg yolks · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp flaky salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Glaze with yolk and score a lattice
Set the discs in 6–7 cm metal rings on a lined baking tray, or in a muffin tin, brush with yolk and milk and score a crosshatch with a fork. The rings hold the shape, as a dough this rich in butter spreads in the oven.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg yolk · 1 tsp milk
Rings hold the shape — the butter wants to spread.Bake to deep gold
Bake 15–18 minutes at 180°C, until deep golden. The yolk glaze darkens to glossy brown. Do not take them out pale — the crumble and caramel butter flavour arrive only with full colour.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg yolk · 1 tsp milk
Cool in the rings
Cool in the rings for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Hot, they are too soft to move and break. They firm only once completely cold.
Ingredients: 150 g salted butter · 120 g sugar · 3 pcs egg yolks · 200 g plain flour · 1 tsp baking powder · ½ tsp flaky salt · 1 tsp vanilla extract
Before you start
Salted butter is key
Breton demi-sel butter contains 0.5–3 per cent salt and is the essence of these cookies. With only unsalted butter, add an extra half teaspoon of flaky salt to the dough — the crystals stay as salty sparks.
A base for tarts
Sablé breton dough is also the classic base for Breton strawberry tarts: baked as a large disc, topped with cream and fresh fruit. It is shorter and butterier than ordinary shortcrust.
Two weeks in a tin
Sablés keep two weeks in an airtight tin and deepen in buttery flavour. The raw log freezes for three months — let it stand 15 minutes before slicing, then bake, adding 2 minutes.
