Sablé Cookies

Don’t be put off by the lengthy instructions. These French Butter cookies are not that difficult to make. NOTE: Dough must be chilled at least 2 hours before baking.

2 sticks (8 oz) salted butter (preferably high-fat, like Plugrá), softened at room temperature
½ cup sugar
¼ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted before measuring
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour

For the decoration:
1 egg yolk
demerara sugar

Working in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until it is smooth and very creamy. Add the sugars and continue to beat until smooth and velvety, about 1 minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in 2 egg yolks, again beating until well blended.

Turn off the mixer, pour in the flour and pulse the mixer about 5 times at low speed for 1 or 2 seconds each time (using a pouring shield or kitchen towel draped over the mixer). If there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple times more. Continuing at low speed, stir for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough. If there is still flour on the bottom of the bowl, use a rubber spatula to work the rest of it into the dough. (The dough will not come together in a ball - and it shouldn't. You want to work the dough as little as possible. What you're aiming for is a soft, moist clumpy dough when pinched feels like Play-Doh.

Scrape the dough onto a work surface, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each piece into a smooth log about 9 inches long (it’s easiest to work on a piece of plastic wrap and use the wrap to help form the log). Wrap the logs well and chill of at least 2 hours. Dough may be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

When ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment.

To decorate the edges of the sablés, whisk the egg yolk until smooth. Place one log of chilled dough on a piece of waxed paper and brush it with the yolk and then sprinkle the entire surface of the log with demerara sugar. Slice the log in ⅓” thick slices.

Place the rounds on the baking sheet, leaving an inch of space between each cookie. Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet at the halfway point. When baked, cookies will be light brown on the bottom, lightly golden around the edges and pale on top. Let cookies rest 1 or 2 minutes before lifting them onto a cooling rack.

VARIATION: Lemon Sablés -  Before mixing the butter and sugar together, pout the sugar in a bowl with the grated zest of 1 to 1½ lemons. Work the zest and sugar together with your fingertips until mixture is moist, then cream it with the butter in the mixer.