— Cooking, Baking, Cookies — 2 min read
Disclaimer: This is a retelling of a WSJ recipe by Adina Steiman because I just liked it so much
They say baking is a science, but cooking is art. I tend to agree but there are exceptions, and the sable cookie is one of them. They are a classic butter cookie, but the variations you can make with them are numerous - and the experimentation that comes from adding in what you like give this recipe a very ‘cooking’ feel when making them.
The following recipe is for one of my favorite variations - Apricot, Rosewater and Pistachio:
1) Place the butter in the mixer and mix on low/medium for a one to two minutes until soft
2) Add in the sugar and mix again until they are completely combined, another one to two minutes
Keep this mixture cold! If the subsequent steps take a while, throw your bowl with the mixture into the fridge
Butter/Sugar Mixture → Mixed Together |
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3) Chop up the dried apricots and the pistachios and add to the bowl. Save a bit of the chopped pistachios to the side
From my time baking these, I’ve found they are better when you overdo the pistachios and under-do the apricots
4) Add the salt and rosewater to the bowl as well, and mix until combined, around 1 minute
After Variation Ingredients → Mixed Together |
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5) Add the flour and do a final mix to let everybody get to know each other. The dough should be crumbly but still moist, like wet sand
After Flour → Mixed Together |
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6) Lie down a large plastic wrap square layer and add your final mixture on top. Using your best sand castle/play dough skills, make a cylinder with a 2” diameter out of the dough using the plastic wrap. Roll around the log with the extra chopped pistachios and optionally the sanding sugar.
7) Refrigerate the wrapped dough for a minimum of 2 hours, ideally overnight
8) Take out the dough, unwrap the plastic, and using a harp knife, cut the dough log into cookies that are about 3/8” thick
After Wrapping → Refridgerating Overnight → Cutting & Baking |
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9) Lay them on your parchment lined baking pan and bake on 325°F degrees for 10 min, flip them over and bake for 10 more minutes. Let rest for 10 minuts and eat!
Final Product |
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The WSJ article talks more about some alternatives but here’s a few to get started (use these in lieu of the steps in the ‘Variation’ section):
I forgot to buy it when making these 😔
As a once aspiring lawyer after watching a few seasons of The West Wing, I was curious about this too. It seems that recipes aren’t protected by copyright law.