Monday, January 18, 2010

Dorie Greenspan's Sables

Early last week I received a parcel from my friend Shalini. I knew I was getting something interesting (I was secretly praying for cookies :P) Guess what I got?

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WOOHOO!!! If you are on my Orkut friend list you will know of my mental obsession with this book! So anyway I decided to bake something (Hallelujah!) and settled on this,

Sables

Sables/Shortbread cookies:
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
2 C all purpose flour
Coarse sugar for decorating

1) Using a hand/stand mixer beat the butter till smooth and very creamy. Add the sugars and beat until well blended, about 1 minute. The mixture should be smooth and velvety, not fluffy and airy.
2) Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in the egg yolks, again beating till the mixture is homogenous.
3) Add the flour and mix using a spatula, until the dough looks uniformly moist. The dough will not clean the sides of the bowl nor will it come together in a ball. You want to work the dough AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.
4) Divide the dough in half and shape each piece into a smooth log about 9 inches long.
5) Wrap the logs well and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours (or overnight).
6) Preheat the oven to 350F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper.
7) Remove the log of dough from the refrigerator, unwrap it and place it on a parchment paper. Brush some yolk all over the sides of the dough- this is the glue0 then sprinkle the entire surface of the log with coarse sugar.
8) Slice the log into 1/3 - 1/2 inch thick cookies ( no thinner than 1/4 inch). Place the round on the baking sheets.
9) Bake foe 17-20 mins. When properly baked the cookies will be light brown on the bottom, lightly golden around the edges and pale on top. Remove from the oven and let it rest a minute before carefully lifting them onto a rack to cool to room temperature.

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Dorie says, "..the cookie is both crumbly and melt-in-the-mouth tender; and it has an anytime rightness that makes it perfect with atall glass of milk, a bowl of ice cream or a basket of berries..." What she doesn't say is that they are highly addictive, you just cannot stop at one.

Shalini, thanks much for the book and I hope D and you enjoy the cookies as much we did!

25 comments:

  1. Dang girl- those look sensational:)It's chai time right now, and I'd kill for one of those cookies. I just can't seem to bake, it involves too much precision, I'd rather throw a bunch of random things in a pot and hope for the best! I'm off to look for you on Orkut!

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  2. you have friends who send you cookbooks?! ugh!! now i officially hate you.

    nandu said she will try and bring me this. i am not sure if she did, waiting for her to settle down first :D

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  3. I love that book... I tried a cheesecake for the first time from that book and was kinda scared about how it would turn out.. needn't have feared. It was Dorie Greenspan's recipe after all... :)
    love these cookies.. I made her chocolate chip shortbread cookies last week !

    - Indhu(www.thayirsaadham.com)

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  4. Hoy SJ, finally with a recipe, Cookies look crispy and chewy!Am sure more baking recipes coming soon...

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  5. ahh see you were depressed and now you are baking the yummiest things ever!! the shortbreads look swell!! Am sure they have cheered you up considerably!!

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  6. I love this book too, i recently requested a friend to get it from US :-)

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  7. I like the way the cookies are described..They look really good ! Good to see you back with a yummy recipe !

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  8. Aaah finally...thanks to Shalini for forcing you to be active for blogging. ;) These shortbread cookies looks so adorable. :)

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  9. Stop tempting me with all this, you know I do not have an oven.

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  10. Oh god, please tell me where SJ lives...I would break into her house to pick up these shortbread cookies...

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  11. Finally Shalini managed to get you to unpack that FP?? What's the colour of the FP?? Those are cookies?? looks like miracles to me :)

    I had got this book from the library after seeing you rave about it on orkut. I got shit scared after seeing the pics and decided to return it before the due date.

    See winter is after all not a bad season for you...you get gifts in winter.

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  12. I like ur friend:-)

    The cookies look scrumptious...I'm gonna try them but tell me how is this C measured in grams;-P???

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  13. Your sables look absolutely beautiful! And I'm so glad you liked them. I hope you'll make lots more recipes from my book and enjoy them just as much.

    Dorie

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  14. Thanks SJ for the sweet words !!!
    these cookies and those spiral ones are on my list n hope these pictures inspire me enough to cook n bake again...

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  15. What a lovely gift to get! Those cookies look pretty awesome too

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  16. woww yumm!!My daughter has been asking for cookies since yesterday..its a rainy day here,might bake these today.:)
    -Trishna

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  17. ooohh,it looks yummy. I'm going to try it ,I'm sure namnam will love it!

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  18. why have u boycotted me :( new year resolution naa ? yaake ??

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  19. no new posts ???
    ...bake some more cookies at least and i'll be tempted to bake three cookies back to back..

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  20. Yum! Sables look mouth-wateringly delicious:)

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