Sable Breton-Inspired Butter Cookies from Hayden Annika

Sable Breton-Inspired Butter Cookies - made dough December 5, 2023 from Hayden Annika 

3 egg yolks, room temperature

75 grams powdered sugar

100 grams salted French or European butter (I used Kerrygold)

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

250 grams cake flour

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip yolks and sugar until pale and thick.
2. Add softened butter and vanilla until thoroughly mixed and smooth.
3. Switch to a paddle attachment and gradually add cake flour on low speed.
4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Once chilled, stamp cookies. Freeze stamped cookies for at least 1 hour.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space frozen cookies. Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

New cookie stamp alert! Still Nordic Ware and made in the USA but this time sourced from Target, just in time for the holidays. Plus they were 30% off when I bought them so $14 for the three stamps were a good deal.

If you're new to cookie stamping, these types of stamps with wooden handles and large impressions that aren't too finely detailed but still have a pattern, are the best starting point.

And of course, it helps to work with a good recipe that holds the stamped impressions during baking. Which, as you can see, this one does. 

I followed the recipe exactly, subbing in Kerrygold European butter since I didn't have access to French butter like the original recipe suggested. I don't have a link back to the original source like I normally do as I got them from the files section of my Facebook group on Molded Cookies but I credit the recipe to one of the group's members who publishes her recipes for stamped cookies.

Sable Breton are butter cookies that tend to be on the buttery and (sometimes) dry side. They're not the crisp snap of shortbread or at least this one didn't. I don't know if I didn't bake them long enough to get the snap. I have mixed feelings about this recipe. I love how faithfully the stamped impressions held and the flavor was good. Not sure I was wild about the texture though as it was in that nebulous ether stage between crisp and chewy. I prefer a cookie texture to commit to one or the other. Plus it had a drier mouthfeel. Which maybe real Sable Bretons also have? It's been awhile since I've had one so I can't remember. Still, look at those impressions. The recipe didn't make very many cookies given the size of my stamps but the dough was easy to work with and easy to make again for more cookies to send in military care packages.