French Sable Cookies

French sable cookies, otherwise known as butter cookies, are the perfect dessert for any occasion. With their simple and easy recipe, you can quickly whip up a batch of these delicious treats in no time! Soft and buttery, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, French sablé cookies are sure to become a new favorite.

What are French Sable Cookies?

Sable means sand in French, and translated, it means sand cookie. It originated in Normandy, French, and was first described around 1600. It's also called French butter cookies, Sable Breton or Palet Breton, and is crunchy, sandy, and buttery.

You can buy them in small French bakery's in vanilla flavor (like these) and dipped in chocolate. And if you've ever travel to France, try the french sable cookies with jam. They're so great. 

Taste the Magic of French Sable Cookies: Soft, Buttery, and Melt-in-Your-Mouth Delicious!

But back to my own home, the children are at home on Wednesday afternoons, and I often bake cookies. Alone or together, depending on if they have a play date. Today, my youngest wanted to bake, so I made these Sable cookies. Why these? Because they give a delicious cookie, the sable recipe is simple, and they're done relatively quickly. They're also soft and buttery and go a melt-in-your-mouth texture.

And easy enough to bake with a young kid. In a few minutes, you make the dough. Cool the cookies for about 25 minutes, then bake them golden brown in fifteen minutes. That is something a young boy can manage.

And if you like baking cookies, look at this page with all kinds of cookie recipes like World Peace Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and these beautiful (and delicious) Chimney cakes.

What do you need for Sable Butter Cookies Recipe?

To prepare these French Sable Cookies, you need the following ingredients. You can find the correct amounts in the recipe card at the bottom of the blog:

How to Make Classic Sable Cookies (Breton Cookies)

You can find a printable recipe with a detailed description at the bottom of this blog.

1. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and mix on high speed for 3 minutes. Add two egg yolks, salt, and vanilla extract and mix for another 2 minutes. Mix half of the flour, then add the remaining flour. Mix until the flour is just incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic and cool in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.
2. Put the sable dough on baking paper and cover it with a second sheet. Roll with a rolling pin until you've reached the desired thickness. 
3. Take a cookie cutter and cut out the cookies. Put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and let them cool for another fifteen minutes in the refrigerator. You'll probably need two baking sheets for this amount of cookie dough.
4. Brush the top of the cookies with the egg yolk wash and bake them for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 320 °F (160 °C) until golden brown. Take the cookies off the baking sheet and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

📖 Recipe

RECIPE CARD

French Sable Cookies

Andréa

French sable cookies, otherwise known as butter cookies, are the perfect dessert for any occasion. With their simple and easy recipe, you can quickly whip up a batch of these delicious treats in no time! Soft and buttery, with a melt-in-your-mouth texture, French sablé cookies are sure to become a new favorite.

5 of 33 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Cooling time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 55 minutes mins

Course Sweets and Sweet Baking

Cuisine European Cuisine, French

Servings 40 cookies

Calories 87 kcal

Equipment

• A conventional oven is used. When using a convection oven (with air fan) decrease the temperature with 30 °F / 20 °C
• baking plate
• Parchment paper
• Rolling Pin
• Cookie cutter
• plastic foil
• Pastry brush
• wire rack

1x2x3x

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1½ stick butter , unsalted, room temperature
• ▢ 1½ cup sugar
• ▢ 2 egg yolks
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 egg yolk

All my recipes are written both in Metric (gram / ml) and US Customary (cups / pounds). Here you can select which type of amount you would like to see.

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

• Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and mix with a mixer for 3 minutes on high speed.
  1½ stick butter, 1½ cup sugar
• Mix two egg yolks, salt, and the vanilla extract into the butter mixture and ensure that everything is well mixed.
  2 egg yolks, ⅛ teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Turn the mixer to medium-speed. Add half the flour, mix well, then add the rest, and mix until you have a smooth dough.
  2 cups all-purpose flour
• Put the dough 15 minutes in the refrigerator.
• Place baking paper on two baking plates.
• Take half of the dough and place between two baking papers.
• Roll with a rolling pin to the required thickness. Repeat that for the second piece of dough.
• Cut with cookie-cutter cookies from the dough. The simplest way is to remove the dough between the cookies. That way, you don't have to move the cookies.
• Put the baking trays with cookies in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 320 °F or 285 °F.
• Mix the remaining egg yolk with one tablespoon of water.
  1 egg yolk
• Take after 15 minutes the cookies from the refrigerator, quickly brush the egg mixture on top of the cookies, and put them in the oven.
• Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown.
• Let cool on a wire rack.

Notes

1. Vanilla - extract -You can easily make a homemade vanilla extract with this recipe.

2. Cookie Baking Tips

• Refrain from overworking the dough; otherwise, your cookie could get solid.
• Make sure your ingredients are at room temperature for the best result.
• Use two baking papers to roll your dough in between. This will give you a nice smooth dough and less mess from the flour.
• Cool well in between so the dough sticks less and the cookies keep their shape better when baking.

3. Variations

• Add maple syrup, lemon zest, cinnamon, or almond flavoring to the dough.
• Also delicious, sprinkle with finely chopped hazelnuts or almonds after brushing with egg.
• Chocolate sable: add cocoa to the dough.
• Make a glaze of icing sugar with lemon juice and brush the cookies with it. Very tasty!

4. What to do with Egg whites leftovers?
Make these delicious winter meringues or strawberry meringues from the leftover egg whites (depending on the season 😉 )

5. Oven - When you use a conventional oven, set the temperature to 320 °F (160 °C). In a convection oven, 285 °F (ca. 141 °C) is sufficient.

6. Storage

• Refrigerator (Dough): You can make the dough a day in advance and store it in plastic in the fridge. The dough will be hard when it comes out of the refrigerator after a long time, so let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling it out.
• Freezer (Dough): You can also freeze the dough. Wrap it in plastic and put it in a plastic freezer bag or box. This way, you can store the dough for up to two months. Then, let it thaw in the refrigerator.
• Room temperature (sable biscuits): Store the biscuits in an airtight container for up to a week.
• Freezer (cookies): Pack the cookies in a freezer box or bag. This will keep them good for up to a month. Let thaw at room temperature (about 30 minutes).

7. Assuming you prepare 40 cookies with this dough, the nutritional value is per cookie.

Nutrition

Calories: 87kcalCarbohydrates: 12gProtein: 1gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.2gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 24mgSodium: 35mgFiber: 0.2gSugar: 8gVitamin A: 125IUIron: 0.3mg

Keyword a simple cookie to bake

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