Sablés Normands

Found on page 562 in the book La Cuisiniere de la Campagne et de la Ville, these cookies are perfectly perfect. Light, buttery and crunchy. They are all you want in a cookie. And then, if you add some caramel, they are even more. 


250 g all-purpose wheat flour
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
150 g butter, room temperature
75 g golden caster sugar (or white sugar, though I prefer the first one)
1 egg yolk

a twist:
16 hard caramels, crushed into pieces*


Preheat the oven to 170° C. Line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and knead into a dough, forming a nice ball. It should be smooth, but the less you knead, the crispier the cookies will be.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about 5 mm thick. Cut out rounds and place them on the prepared pan. You can place them quite close together, as they won’t spread.

Using a fork, "engrave" lines on top of the cookies.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven, and after cooling for a minute, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.

* If you want to add a twist, include the caramel pieces to make the cookies sweeter and more special. I like to divide the dough into two portions: one is plain, and the other has caramel (adding 8 crushed candies).