Sablés Bretons are butter cookies from Bretagne / Brittany are small cookies with a crumbly texture that melt in your mouth.
My suggestion of the day is to elevate those iconic specialties from Brittany, the classic sablé breton, even further with the addition of cocoa. Without a doubt, some of the best shortbread cookies around!
The French name of those cookies from Brittany: Sablé or Palet
Sablés bretons are also known as palets bretons, in reference to their distinctive baking method or shape (round and thick). Let me explain those two French words:
- Sablé breton comes from the French word sable, meaning “sand” or sabler, meaning “to have a sandy texture.” You can easily see that iy refers to the sandy texture of the raw dough. The same word, sablé, is used for both the sweet shortcrust pie pastry, pâte sablée.
Dry ingredients (flour and sugar) and cold butter that are mixed together until a sand-like texture is achieved (While mixed, the fat in the butter coats the flour, and the pieces of butter get smaller and smaller. This also prevents the gluten from developing, and you won’t get a rubbery dough.). Then, egg or water is added, and the mixture is mixed until you can form a ball with the dough.
- As for palet breton, the name and shape are no coincidence, but refer to the traditional Breton game of palets. The biscuit, which is round, flat, and thick, is reminiscent of the metal discs used in this game, which are thrown, in a similar way to South-France pétanque, onto a square wooden board (the rules are the same, except that any palet that leaves the wooden board is eliminated). There are records of this popular game dating back to the 16th century.
Origin of sablés / palets bretons
The origin of the palet or sablé breton dates back to the 19th century. It is said to be inspired by the Normandy shortbread, but with a generous amount of semi-salted butter.
Why is butter salted so widely used in Brittany? This is due to a historical exemption from salt tax, known as the “gabelle” in Brittany, which made salt more accessible. Salt also ensured that butter kept for a longer period.
In France you can find different kinds of butter (beurre):
- beurre doux (meaning sweet)= unsalted
- beurre demi-sel (meaning half salt) = about .5% to 3% salt
- beurre salé (meaning salé )= more than 3% salt and sometimes containing salt crystals (cristaux de sel). Most French refer to beurre salé without making the distinction between demi-sel or salé
I also read that traditional shortbread cookies originated in Sarthe, not Brittany. There is even an anecdote that these cookies were popularized at the court of King Louis XIV in 1670 by the Marquise de Sablé de Souvre. I need to check all this in my books on French gastronomy and will update you shortly.
Baking notes
This very crumbly dough is mainly composed of salted butter, sugar, egg yolks, and flour.
I use semi-salted butter, but you can use unsalted butter if you prefer, although I recommend adding a pinch of salt or fleur de sel.
Some French people use room-temperature butter for sablé bretons; I prefer cold butter.
To add a little indulgence and change the classic recipe, I added cocoa. I use unsweetened cocoa powder.
Finally, you can use these shortbread cookies as a tart base, covering them with pastry cream and red berries, for example (similar to what I did with my plain shortbread tartlets with rhubarb and strawberry compote). Alternatively, you can break them up roughly and use them as a topping for mousses, creams, or fruit salads…
How to make the sablé breton French butter cookies with chocolate
There are two options:
1- The method I provide in the recipe is more straightforward and does not require a mold or cookie cutter. Once the ingredients are mixed, form a roll about 5 cm / 2 inches in diameter. Wrap it in wrapping paper, as you would for a ballotine, and roll the log to obtain a nice, round, symmetrical cylinder. Flatten both ends as well. Place it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Once the shortbread dough has cooled, remove the wrapping paper and cut into 1 cm / 0.5 inch thick slices. If cutting with a knife has slightly deformed your rounds, reshape them a little. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in the oven. See photos.
The advantage of this first method is that when you put your shortbread in the oven, the dough is cold, and your shortbread will remain thick when baked. However, if it is at room temperature, it will tend to spread, and you will not be able to achieve that disc shape.
2- The other method, which I do not recommend because I find it more tedious: Roll out your dough to a uniform thickness of 1 cm / 0.5 inch (on a floured work surface or a sheet of parchment paper). Using a round cookie cutter approximately 5 cm / 2 inches in diameter (or a glass, although this is not very practical), cut out circles and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Then, with the scraps, repeat the process until no dough remains.
With this method, it is best to leave the cookie cutters in place while baking and remove them after baking to get the thick shape of the palets, but you will need several. I won’t give you too many details about this method as I’m not a big fan.
With this method, you can have fun with different shapes (they can no longer be called palets though, but just shortbread cookies!).
You can also use small individual molds with different shapes.
French Butter Cookie with Chocolate
Ingredients
- 160 gr flour
- 100 gr sugar
- 3 teaspoon cocoa unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 125 gr salted butter or unsalted butter + pinch of salt or fleur de sel
- 3 egg yolks
Instructions
Prepare the dough
- Place all the ingredients in the bowl of your food processor and mix until you obtain a sandy texture.
- Roll out some cling film. Form a large roll about 5 cm in diameter and wrap it in the parchment paper. Flatten both ends. Roll it well to form a uniform cylinder. Place it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Place the shortbread dough on a cutting board and cut into 1 cm thick rounds.
- Arrange the rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes at 180°C/350°F (the time may vary depending on the size of your shortbread cookies).
Notes
With this recipe, you can make 15 to 20 cookies depending on their size of course.
This recipe does not say how many cookies it makes, why is that?
I made 15 cookies with those quantities, but it depends on the size and the thickness.