Sablés (Sandies) and Losing Our Way

I'm sharing Bob Herbert's final column, printed in the NY Times, the 26th of March, 2011. It's brilliant, correct; and it's important that you read it. 

Then, bake.

Peace (really) and love, jane

Losing Our Way

By BOB HERBERT

So here we are pouring shiploads of cash into yet another war, this time in Libya, while simultaneously demolishing school budgets, closing libraries, laying off teachers and police officers, and generally letting the bottom fall out of the quality of life here at home.

Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living.

Arthur Miller, echoing the poet Archibald MacLeish, liked to say that the essence of America was its promises. That was a long time ago. Limitless greed, unrestrained corporate power and a ferocious addiction to foreign oil have led us to an era of perpetual war and economic decline. Young people today are staring at a future in which they will be less well off than their elders, a reversal of fortune that should send a shudder through everyone.

The U.S. has not just misplaced its priorities. When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.

Nearly 14 million Americans are jobless and the outlook for many of them is grim. Since there is just one job available for every five individuals looking for work, four of the five are out of luck. Instead of a land of opportunity, the U.S. is increasingly becoming a place of limited expectations. A college professor in Washington told me this week that graduates from his program were finding jobs, but they were not making very much money, certainly not enough to think about raising a family.

There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion.

Americans behave as if this is somehow normal or acceptable. It shouldn’t be, and didn’t used to be. Through much of the post-World War II era, income distribution was far more equitable, with the top 10 percent of families accounting for just a third of average income growth, and the bottom 90 percent receiving two-thirds. That seems like ancient history now.

The current maldistribution of wealth is also scandalous. In 2009, the richest 5 percent claimed 63.5 percent of the nation’s wealth. The overwhelming majority, the bottom 80 percent, collectively held just 12.8 percent.

This inequality, in which an enormous segment of the population struggles while the fortunate few ride the gravy train, is a world-class recipe for social unrest. Downward mobility is an ever-shortening fuse leading to profound consequences.

A stark example of the fundamental unfairness that is now so widespread was in The New York Times on Friday under the headline: “G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether.” Despite profits of $14.2 billion — $5.1 billion from its operations in the United States — General Electric did not have to pay any U.S. taxes last year.

As The Times’s David Kocieniewski reported, “Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore.”

G.E. is the nation’s largest corporation. Its chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, is the leader of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. You can understand how ordinary workers might look at this cozy corporate-government arrangement and conclude that it is not fully committed to the best interests of working people.

Overwhelming imbalances in wealth and income inevitably result in enormous imbalances of political power. So the corporations and the very wealthy continue to do well. The employment crisis never gets addressed. The wars never end. And nation-building never gets a foothold here at home.

New ideas and new leadership have seldom been more urgently needed.

•

This is my last column for The New York Times after an exhilarating, nearly 18-year run. I’m off to write a book and expand my efforts on behalf of working people, the poor and others who are struggling in our society. My thanks to all the readers who have been so kind to me over the years. I can be reached going forward at bobherbert88@gmail.com.

Sablés

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan by Blue Heron Kitchen        

Americans tout chocolate chip cookies.

The French started it with sablés.

Nobody will object to sitting down to a plate of these with a glass of milk.

Sablé means ‘sand’, and when you bite into one of these sand cookies, it crumbles, a buttery empire, collapsing and exploding, simultaneously releasing flavor and texture. (Up for it?)

Forget pecan sandies. Those are childhood memory cookies that are so filled with ingredients that include numerals and that don’t come close to anything resembling this authentic ‘sandie’ experience. 

The recipe couldn’t be simpler, and once you have the technique down, you may opt for these as your new ‘go to’ for clean, simple, easy-bake, always on hand (you can keep rolls of them in the freezer for ‘slice and bake’) cookies. They’re simple and straight forward enough for young children and elegant enough to serve as a petit four at a champagne celebration or at the end of an elegant dinner party. (Remember those?)

Provided you use the best and freshest ingredients and 83% butter (either American produced, such as “Plugra” made by Hotel Bar) or the real stuff from France, you’ll be astounded at how much like a French bakery your home will smell and you’ll wonder how you ever thought pecan sandies were what a ‘sand cookie’ was supposed to be.

The basic recipe is below and there are two variations, one with nuts and the other with chocolate ‘chips’. You can play around with citrus rinds (I omit the citrus when I use chocolate chips and nuts), and Dorie’s recipe has other variations for ‘spice’ sablés (add 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. ground ginger and ¼ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg into the flour), as well as a savory one with parmesan cheese, omitting both sugars and adding 2 ¼ oz. very finely grated parmesan cheese to the beaten butter (don’t coat the logs with sugar with the savory variation – you can, however, sprinkle the logs with finely chopped nuts or fleur de sel.)

Ingredients:

8 oz. unsalted butter, (83% butterfat such as Plugra brand or imported butter from France is recommended), at room temperature

½ c. granulated sugar

grated zest from one lemon, preferably organic

¾ c. confectioner’s sugar (be sure to sift first, then measure)

½ tsp. kosher salt

2 large egg yolks, room temperature*

1 egg, room temperature (optional, if you’re coating the roll)

2 c. all-purpose flour (unbleached, scoop and level to measure)

sanding sugar, optional

finely chopped, toasted almonds, optional

INGREDIENTS for two VARIATIONS:

NUTS: substitute ½ cup of the flour with ½ cup finely ground almond (or other nut) flour (Bob’s Red Mill is a great American brand.) Whisk together with the flour and set aside.

CHOCOLATE “CHIPS”: finely chop 2 ½ oz. excellent quality (Valhrona dark chocolate) and mix into batter, by hand, as the final step.

Procedure:


Sift and measure 10X (confectioner's sugar) and whisk together with granulated sugar in a small bowl. If you are using citrus zest, using your fingers, incorporate the zest into the sugars and set aside. You might want to do this while you are bringing the butter and eggs to room temperature. It's a useful truc to have in your repertoire. The citrus oils have an opportunity to combine with the sugars.

In the bowl of a Kitchen Aid or other electric mixer, using a paddle attachment (have you bought your beater blade yet?) Beat butter at medium speed until smooth and very creamy.

Add both sugars and salt and beat until blended. Important: This mixture should be smooth, but not fluffy.

Reduce speed to low and beat in egg yolks until combined.

Turn off mixer and pour in flour (or flour/ground nut mixture). Pulse several times (you can put a towel over the mixer so you don’t look like Lucy in the ‘make up!’ episode) until just incorporated. Continue, uncovered until the flour just disappears into the dough. The dough isn’t going to come away from the sides of the bowl. It’s not going to come into a ball.  Work the dough as little as possible. It’s going to look and feel moist and as Dorie says, like Play-Doh.

Scrape onto a clean and smooth surface, divide into three or four balls, whatever size you’re most comfortable working with, and shape each into a log. Diameter is up to you, but I like about one inch. It’s easy to do this on plastic wrap (I’m still looking for non-BPA – if you find it, please write to me and tell me.) and then roll it, and swing it into a roll, holding the two ends. (It’s fun.)

Refrigerate at least 3 hours. Longer is better. You can keep it in the fridge up to three days or you can freeze these logs up to 2 months.

Baking the sablés:

Preheat oven to 350º F. and center the oven rack. You’re going to back just one sheet at a time. (sorry) Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.

Remove one log at a time from fridge. If you’re going to coat the outside of the log, whisk the egg and using a pastry brush, coat the outside of the log with the egg and sprinkle the log with sanding sugar or chopped nuts (or a combination of the two!), or if you’re making the savory sablés, some fleur de sel, and then with a sharp knife and a swift cut, slice the cookies about 1/3” -1/2” thickness, your call. Leave an inch between the cookies.

Bake one sheet at a time for about 15 minutes, give or take, until they are browned on the bottom, lightly golden around the edges and pale on top. They will be tender and crumble when they come out of the oven. Let them rest before transferring them to a rack with a wide metal spatula to cool to room temperature.