My Little Blue Heron: Chocolate Sablés

Chocolate Sablés - Updated!

Adapted from Pierre Hermé by Blue Heron Kitchen

These deep, dark chocolate cookies upgrade “slice and bake” to business class. Use the best ingredients you can get your hands on (apply this advice to things you cook and to how you live.)

Some recommendations: Use European style butter (83% butterfat). You can go nuts and buy French butter or use Plugra or Kate's Homemade (from Vermont) or Kerrygold from Ireland. Lately Cabot's 83% has been tasting cultured to me, but you try it and see if you like it. Try Fairway or any good supermarket - Whole Foods is pricey, but their sales rock. You'll know your best market in your neck of the woods.

Use excellent quality cocoa, like Valhrona or Scharffenberger. Droste works too. Chop your own: use Valhrona, Guittard or comparable chocolates. Easy: try Guittard's Akoma Extra Semisweet Chips, 55% Cacao (I found them on sale at Whole Foods.) or Jacques Torres’ discs. You can buy Torres' 60% baking discs but there's a $15 shipping fee (what up?). If you live in NYC, there are several shops where you can buy his baking discs: Chelsea Market, UWS, DUMBO.

Use the best quality vanilla extract possible. It's worth the cost. I've been using Baldwin’s of West Stockbridge's extracts forever and I can’t describe how rich and unique their vanilla extract is. Use fresh, moist brown sugar. Domino brand granulated sugar is always a good choice; and unbleached, excellent quality flour is important. (If you can buy locally milled flour, even better. But if not, try King Arthur's unbleached flour or Bob's Red Mill's flours - both great choices). You can’t create a bad sablé (literally, "sablé" means 'sand' in French - it's a texture situation) if you use these or comparable ingredients and don't fuss too much with the batter.

Ingredients:

1 ¼ c. all-purpose flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder (Valhrona rocks)

½ tsp. baking soda

1 stick + 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature, 83% butterfat is best

2/3 c. light brown sugar, loosely packed

¼ c. granulated sugar

½ tsp. fleur de sel (or 1/3 tsp. fine salt - but use Fleur de Sel - it's better)

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chip-sized pieces (or use the Guittard chips!)
Optional (but a nice touch): 1 egg yolk (freeze the white - you can use it for meringue, angel food, floating island, or for brushing the top of Italian cookies!), whisked for coating the logs
Coarse sanding sugar (I like pure white, but if you like colored sugars, have a blast!)

Procedure:

Sift flour, cocoa and baking soda together and then whisk it to make sure it's totally combined. Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer (Kitchen Aid, fitted with paddle attachment - get a silicone beater blade - you'll LOVE it) or with a hand mixer, beat butter until soft and creamy.

Add both sugars, salt and vanilla extract and beat for another couple of minutes, until fully incorporated.

Turn off the mixer. Add all dry ingredients. Truc: put towel over the Kitchen Aid so

you and your kitchen doesn't experience a small nuclear winter. Mix on low speed until incorporated.

Add chopped chocolate and mix until just incorporated. Be careful - don't overwork this dough. The less you work the batter, the sandier, crumblier and more etherial your sablé will be.

Split into two even blobs (hold them and close your eyes and feel that they weigh the same - like identical twins!) Gently roll into two logs, each approximately 1 ½ “ in diameter. Less handling, the better.

Wrap and roll in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or for up to 3 days.) You can also freeze this dough: Slice it frozen and add about one minute on to baking time. Use a very sharp knife and If they fall apart during the slicing process, just press them back together.

Preheat oven to 350º F.and place rack in middle of the oven. I recommend baking one sheet at a time.

If you're coating these with coarse sugar, whisk the egg yolk, and using a pastry brush (not the one you glazed the tamarind chicken wings with), coat the logs and then roll them in coarse, sanding sugar. (You can skip this step, and the cookies will still be wonderful.)

Slice ½” thick cookies and place on parchment (I'm not a big fan of Silpat - I prefer parchment). They don’t spread much, but leave an inch between for them to breathe while the bake. They're baked business class.

Bake one sheet at a time, for exactly 12 minutes (add one minute if they’re frozen). These cookies may not look ‘done’, but remove them from the oven anyway. Cool on rack.