This week’s French Fridays with Dorie introduced me to cocoa sablés (pp 402-403) – basically a chocolate shortbread, studded with finely chopped dark chocolate. It’s buttery and melts in your mouth, even cut thick like Dorie suggests (she calls them “substantial”), though she does say that if you cut them thinner, you can make ice cream sandwiches out of them. Oh yes – mental note to summer self.
Apart from having to chill the dough for 3 hours, this was quick to make. The dough came together very fast (I made it in the Kitchen Aid), and though it was crumbly to roll, it was not as bad as some of the pie crusts I have made in the past where I am patching holes together at the end 😉
I actually really loved these, though they definitely are not the fanciest of cookies. They were not too sweet at all and I liked the thick but crumbly texture. Perfect for an afternoon snack with a glass of milk. You kind of need the milk to wash it down.
They are also the perfect snack to take with you because they don’t get crushed at the bottom of your bag.
French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs, rather, we prefer if you purchase Around My French Table for yourselves (trust me, you definitely want this book!) which you can do here on Amazon or Amazon Canada. Or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Go on, treat yourself and join us this year!
Did you know? I am leading a foodie tour of Paris this July! Read all about it here. We’ve only got 4 spots left!!!
Lovely job 🙂
Substantial indeed – these were some of the heftiest cookies that I’ve ever made…
But so good, right?
I love the look of the chocolate bits in the cookie. I was too lazy to chop up chocolate, so just did a basic version. Liked the heft as well.
The “heft” was good.
Shortbread is a weakness of mine. I’ve never had chocolate sables…could be dangerous 🙂
Once you start….
great photo and the cocoa sables looks delicious
cheers
I’m normally more of a chewy cookie kinda gal, but these look like the kind of cookies I’d happily make an exception for. I bet they’d be quite lovely with some chopped walnuts added in, almost like a brownie-slash-shortbread hybrid.
Walnuts would be great in this!
How I would LOVE these to dip in my morning coffee! They look great Mardi!
Mardi, I actually think these cookies are best eaten with milk. Loved that picture. Keep bakin’. Mary
Yum. I wish I had skipped the sugar rolling though like you did. Good call.
I actually didn’t do that on purpose. LOL!
I can’t wait to get home and attack my cookie bowl with a glass of milk. Dorie’s comment about using this recipe for ice cream sandwiches inspired my curd/sablé sandwich cookies.
Love the idea of the curd!
I think next time I will need to add the additional chocolate. Looks great!
It was a nice addition!
I love me a crumbly cookie with a tall glass of milk or a cup of coffee. I’d be interested if you follow through and fill with ice cream this summer, I will be driving to Ontario to eat some, if that’s the case!
Haha! You’re welcome any time!
I’ll take a few of these with a peanut butter slather on top!
Oh yes!!!
I haven’t made a sable dough since culinary school but yours looks fantastic! These would be amazing to use for a ice cream cookie sandwich! Mmmm…drooling at just the thought. The cookies came out beautifully!
I never thought to have my sables with milk, and I don’t know why that bypassed me. I did have them with coffee though, they were just as delicious! Next time, I’ll include those chocolate bits…they do add character to the sables 🙂
Character… indeed!
These really were perfect with a big glass of milk. I’m trying really hard not to run to the freezer and bake up the second half of my batch right now.
I love that you can freeze the dough!
Looks great, especially with the milk, would make a great commercial ad. I was not too
fond of these, but I hope to try a vanilla version sometime soon. Fortunately, for me,
Tricia and her family loved them. The experience is always interesting, no matter the
outcome.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s all about experimenting!
I don’t think that life gets much better than milk & cookies! Your sables look delicious.
Your pics are gorgeous! These cookies are kind of sneaking up on me. At first they were not my fave but as the pile of them dwindles down I seem to be enjoying them more. And they definitely do taste delicious with a little glass of milk. Yum!
I think they were definitely better the day after…
I love that they look crunchy and soft at the same time, delicious
Yes they were – not sure how that works but it really did!
These are one of my favorites. Thanks for the inspiration!
Great treat Mardi. I keep thinking about joining this group but not sure I can add anything else in right now. I am so bummed we didn’t get to meet at the conference. I would love to have lunch or dinner if I come up to Toronto with my daughter. Her friend is at the U in Toronto so she likes to go up and visit on occasion. I would SO love to go on your Paris adventure. Alas Disney broke the travel bank for us. My son went to France a couple of years ago with his University, he had a blast. He said it`s like a whole different world there. Food is such a big part of their lives, given much more respect than here. I must go one day.
Kim you should join FFWD – no pressure to do it each week. A great group!
I like the way you piled up the cookies with little (wax paper?) separators? Looks like they came straight from the bakery. I’m enjoying these as I type with a nice cup of tea.
Just parchment!
These cookies are perfect! I bet they would be sooo yummy as an ice cream sandwich!
They were substantial, weren’t they? I made them about twice as thick as instinct told me to, and I ended up being glad I did, because they were both crisp and chewy.
Yes the thickness works for these ones for sure!
What beautifully presented sables – soft chewy and chocolatey 😀
These look fantastic! I love sables, they just melt in your mouth. Great recipe!
I’ve never made one of Dorie’s sablé recipes, but I’m a crazy shortbread fiend (which for some reason makes me picture a swashbuckling pirate… who is also wearing an apron). Cocoa with chocolate chips/slivers is most definitely a tasty version:)
If you like shortbread, you will love these!
Fairly near perfection, these.
Wow those are words we don’t hear often about cookies from you!
Mm, those look yummy biscuits. 🙂
I never think of sablees being sweet, these look wonderful and yes I bet they are perfect for little dinky ice cream sandwiches!
They’ll have to be tested out in the summer!