If you’re looking for crispy / crunchy chocolate cookies these chocolate sables are perfect for you! Made with cocoa powder and chocolate chips, they have just the right amount of chocolate flavor to make you coming back for more. The level of sweetness complements the chocolate’s bitterness to perfection. It’s a great balance, but you can sprinkle some extra salt on top if that’s how you roll. I love these chocolate sables!
CRISPY COOKIES
It might be a controversial statement but I’m not really into this all gooey-cakey-soft cookies craze. There, I said it! If I wanted cake, I would eat cake. I’m an old-fashioned 25 years-old, what can I do? I want the type of cookies I grew up eating, the crispy type you would get from processed cookies bought at a supermarket. Except, if you bake them from scratch they are 100000 times better!
I like crispy cookies because they pair so well with a cup of tea or coffee (any dunkers out there?). And also who can say no to a crumbly buttery cookie that melts in your mouth? In France, cookies are called biscuits, and biscuits are defined as ‘petits gâteaux secs’ aka small dry cakes. I agree it doesn’t seem appealing but it helped me realize why I would pick a crispy cookie over a cakey one any day of the week.
Overall, these chocolate sables are a pretty easy and quick treat! To make the creaming process easier, wait for the butter to completely soften to room temperature for 1 hour before starting the recipe. Use quality dark chocolate but the percentage is up to you. For these chocolate sables, I didn’t want the taste to be overpowering so I used chocolate with a minimum content of 52% cocoa. If you like your chocolate bakes for on the (adult) bitter side, feel free to use a higher percentage.
SABLE DOUGH
➝ What’s a sable dough? A sable dough is a type of pastry mainly used for tart shells. A sable dough is made of butter, sugar, and flour (ground nuts, cocoa powder or salt can also be added). To make a traditional sable dough, first, sift the flour into a bowl with the sugar and then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. A tart shell made with sable pastry will be much crumblier than one made with shortcrust pastry.
If these cookies are named chocolate sables, it’s because French shortbread cookies are called ‘sablés’. Traditionally, sablés are crumbly round cookies with fluted edges. They are simply made by mixing quickly flour, sugar and butter (and sometimes egg yolks) until a sandy texture is reached. Sable means sand in French and sablés were created in a town called Sablé-sur-Sarthe.
I took a quick shortcut with my chocolate sables since the butter and sugar are creamed together. I’m not very patient so if I can avoid having to rub my butter into flour for 5 min by hand, I will! Don’t worry the cookies are just as crumbly as what you would expect from chocolate sables.
FREEZER-FRIENDLY RECIPE
➝ Can I prepare the chocolate sables in advance? You can keep the sable dough, as a roll wrapped in clingfilm and ready to be sliced, for up to 3 days in the fridge.
Or, after you’ve cut the dough into slices and reshaped the chocolate sables with your hands, you can freeze the slices for up to a month. To freeze them, place the chocolate sables on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and place the tray in the freezer for 2 hours. When the chocolate sables are frozen solid you can place them in a plastic container (or a freezer bag to save space). Then keep in the freezer for up to a month. You can bake the chocolate sables straight out of the freezer, just add a couple more minutes of bake time.
Looking for other chocolate desserts? Here are some of my favorites:
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Chocolate sables
- Prep Time: 20min
- Cook Time: 15min
- Total Time: 35min
- Yield: 11 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: French
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Chocolate sables (or sablés) are crumbly buttery cookies with just the right amount of chocolate making you want to come back for more.
Ingredients
- 120g flour (¾ cup + 1 tbsp)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 15g cocoa powder (2 tbsp), unsweetened
- 100g butter (7 tbsp), cubed and softened to room temperature
- 45g powdered sugar (⅓ cup)
- ½ tsp salt
- 40g dark chocolate (¼ cup), chopped into small pieces
Instructions
- Make the dough. In a small bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder and cocoa powder. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and salt together with a hand mixer for 2 min until smooth and fluffy. Use the lowest speed first until the sugar is incorporated then raise the speed to medium-high. Sift the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl and beat at the lowest speed until just incorporated. The dough will be creamy and soft. Fold in the chocolate pieces evenly with a rubber spatula.
- Shape the log. Press the dough into a ball with your hands, then wrap it loosely in a large piece of plastic wrap. Shape the ball into a log, roughly 5cm (2 in) wide, by rolling in on your counter. Place in the freezer to firm up for 20 min.
- Slice the log. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside. Unwrap the dough, cut it into 5mm (0.2 in) slices and place on the prepared tray, leaving room to spread (but they won’t spread a lot). The slices might crumble a bit while cutting them with some chocolate chips falling off. It’s normal, a sable dough is crumbly and soft, so there is nothing to worry about. Put the chocolate chips back into place and use your hands to shape the slices back into round sables.
- Chill the slices. Place the tray in the freezer for the chocolate sables to firm up for 10 min. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 160°C (320°F).
- Bake. Bake the chocolate sables for 15 min. The cookies will still be soft so leave them to cool down and firm up on the baking tray for 10 min before placing them on a cooling rack. Sprinkle extra salt on top if you feel like it.
Notes
Best eaten fresh but you can store the chocolate sables in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 144
- Fat: 8.7g
Keywords: french cookies, french dessert, quick recipe
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