When I first started reading though Baking, one of the things I immediately enjoyed about it was that in addition to the fancy desserts, it is packed with simple but special recipes, which you can make from basic pantry staples. One that immediately caught my eye was the Sable recipe, which was described as a French shortbread (sounds so much more enticing than “butter cookie”) and is accompanied by a gorgeous photo. Anyway, it was one of the very first recipes I made from “the book” and I was happy to make it again when it was selected for Tuesdays With Dorie this week. Dorie offers a number of different flavor combinations in the “playing around” section of the recipe, and since I had made the basic cookie recipe the first time around, I was tempted to try one of the citrus or spice versions. Josh voted for plain butter, though, and I count on him to consume the larger percent of baked goods in this household, so I went with that one.
And yum! I’d forgotten what fantastic cookies they are; they are sturdier than a traditional shortbread, which coincidentally, I made a batch of for Secret Baker this weekend, and delightfully buttery. It has gotten quite cold (for California) this week and I really didn’t feel like running tonight; I just wanted to sit inside and eat these cookies – they’re that good. This recipe rated an 8 for Deliciousness and a 2 for Effort, giving it an EDR of 4. Many thanks to Barbara of Bungalow Barbara for a great selection. You can find the recipe here on Barbara’s site, as well as lots of lovely cakes and great information about baking. And stop by the TWD blogroll to see what other variations people made.
Here is a photo the shortbread I made for Secret Baker. The recipe can be found here on the Cook’s Illustrated site. I sampled one for quality control and they’re really good too!
18 comments:
I agree. One of the nicest things about this recipe is that it's perfectly delicious in its simplest form.
Lovely photos! The contrast on the edges is very pretty.
I made the spice version and absolutely loved them - you should definitely give them a try sometime. I loved the simplicity of these, too - so incredibly delicious for such a basic cookie.
Your cookies and shortbread both look great. I thought about trying another one of the versions, but it's hard to compete with the original.
I loved the plain version- much better than running in the cold!
Gorgeous sables Margot! I love that they're substantial. Cookies are always better than running in my book :)
The shortbread looks wonderful. I think your SB recipient is quite lucky.
definitely a "simple but special" recipe! they look great!
Thank you for baking along with me this week!
I love the thick slices -- simple but lovely! Glad you liked them.
P.S -- I've been wanting to try that new CI shortbread recipe -- the inclusion of oats sounds interesting. Glad to hear it is good!
Both versions look mighty fine to me! Nice!
I absolutely love how thick you sliced your sables! And I let my hubs make those kinds of choices too; he's the designated consumer of baked goods.
Margot, your sables are beautiful! Love the thickness of them. I made the original also--am sure the others are good, but its hard to improve on perfection, huh? Your secret baker is one lucky person to be the recipient of such deliciousness! Too bad I didnt participate in that again this month ;)
These were wonderfully simple and quite tasty. Will definitely make again.
Yours look delicious.
Lovely cookies! They are so evenly formed. One quick question - did Miss Ears get one?
I love the way those came out -- with the darker bottom as contrast. They look perfect!
Yeah... who wants to run when there's such amazing cookies sitting at home. LOL Why not keep them company! LOL
I love your blue dishes... very whymsical, very romantic... oh! And yes, the sablés are pretty darn lovely too! LOL
I am the VERY LUCKY recipient of the lovely shortbread cookies, and they are incredibly delicious! They taste as good as they look. I also received toffee which my husband is drooling over, saying it is the best toffee he has had in forever, and we are both inhaling our ginger cookies! Those ginger cookies are so pretty and so tasty...Matt is going to be very sad he is missing this as he is at National swim meet this week...we will save some for him! Margot, thank you so much for all of it, we love it. You are so generous...any one of those would have been plenty, but all three are over the top! Thank you!
I was very thankful for such an easy recipe this week - in fact, I'm going to prepare a log of dough and take it to my brother's house over Christmas. But not before I check out the other recipe first!
Beautiful sables, Margot! I'm so happy that the weather has warmed up a little recently...last week was TOO cold.
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