Pistachio Sables Bretons
“Cookies are made of butter and love.”
Fragile, sandy, light and wonderful.
200 g butter, room temperature
100 g white sugar
100 g golden caster sugar
1/3 organic lemon zest, finely grated
pinch of vanilla powder
1/3 tsp sea salt
3 medium egg yolks, lightly whisked with a fork
orange blossom water (you can omit that)
250 g wheat flour
70 g ground pistachios (almost like flour)
1/2 tsp baking powder
Cream the butter with sugar and zest for five minutes using a stand mixer with a paddle until everything is light and fluffy. When the butter is almost done, add zest, vanilla , salt and whisk for 30 seconds. Beat in eggs in 2-3 batches. If the mixture starts to split, add 1 tbsp flour.
Add flour, mixed with baking powder, and mix until combined. Then knead to have a smooth dough, but as little as possible (the more you knead the tougher the cookie). The dough will be soft. Divide the cookie dough into two and make a sausage using plastic wrap. The size depends on you. I make a size that fits my individual small cake tins. If you don’t have those, then you can bake them in muffin tins, so make the sausage as big as the bottom of the muffin tin. Wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap and chill for 12-24 h. This gives the dough time to fully absorb the wet ingredients and firm up.
Heat the oven 190°. Remove the dough from the fridge, cut into 1 cm slices, place into the bottom of the muffin tin or other tins you are using, and place in the oven. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown. After baking, let the cookies cool completely and transfer to a wire rack. It is trickier to get them out of the muffin tin, yet possible. If baking the thin version, you can cool them in the pan, just for 5 minutes, and then carefully transfer to the rack. Bake the rest of the cookies.