It took me decades — until just a few weeks ago, actually — to realize the British Isles don’t have the monopoly on shortbread.
My British mom would whip up shortbread like she was making a sandwich. And I would agree with her that it was “moreish,” the British term for a food that makes you want to eat more.
My introduction to French shortbread came when I saw a notice last month that Barbara Talevich was going to talk about how to make “French sable heart cookies” at a local library. Talevich is co-owner, with her husband Steve, of the West Side Bakery in West Akron and Green.
The name alone sounded rich and luscious. What were they?
I Googled away and then called Talevich, who explained that for Valentine’s Day, her bakeries often feature a sandwich version of heart-shaped French sable, with chocolate ganache or strawberry preserve filling. For Valentine’s Day, she agreed to provide a recipe and show us how the treats are made.
At her West Akron bakery, she filled me in on the name. Sable means “sand” in French, and the cookies, which originated in the Normandy region, are typically crumbly.
Sable are usually round biscuits; some bakers form the dough into a log that they slice into rounds. But the dough also lends itself to cutout cookies.
Talevich said because she’s making sandwich cookies, she doesn’t want them to break too easily, so she uses half butter and half margarine in the dough, rather than all butter.
She spreads the bottom layer with strawberry preserves or chocolate ganache. She then tops the bottom layer with another heart with the center cut out, which allows the filling to show through.
These are time-consuming. Want an easier treat for your sweetie? Make heart-shaped cutouts, but not sandwich cookies. Dust the cookies with powdered sugar or decorate with sugar sprinkles. (Before baking, use a pastry brush or fork to brush egg white on the cookies to help the sprinkles stick.)
Here is Talevich’s recipe. It makes a load of cookies; the number depends on what size cookie cutters you use. Talevich hasn’t tried halving it. She suggests using the whole egg if you do.
French SABLE
Sandwich CookieS
2 sticks plus 3 tbsp. butter, at room temperature
2 sticks plus 3 tbsp. margarine, at room temperature
2½ cups powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. vanilla
6½ cups all-purpose flour
Cream butter and margarine, by hand or with an electric mixer. Mix in powdered sugar. Scrape down bowl. Add egg and vanilla. Add flour and mix until fully incorporated. (I added it in three batches.) Scrape down bowl again.
Gather the dough, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate about an hour, until dough is chilled.
Lightly flour surface and roll out dough to ¼-inch thickness. (Some bakers recommend that you roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper to the desired thickness before chilling.)
Using a large heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out shapes. Using a smaller heart-shaped cutter, cut out holes in half of the cookies, forming the heart outlines. These will be the top layers. Save leftover dough to make more cookies. (If the dough has gotten warm, you can chill the shapes for about 10 minutes before baking to prevent spreading.)
Bake at 350 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet, lined with parchment paper, for 8-10 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through, until the edges are just starting to turn golden. Let cookies cool on a wire rack.
Spread ganache, strawberry jam or preserves on bottom-layer cookies. Top with the heart outline cookies.
Yield depends on size of cookie cutters.
Notes: A basic ganache recipe uses ½ cup of heavy cream mixed with 8 ounces of melted semi-sweet chocolate. Use less cream for a thicker ganache.
You can spritz water onto the outlines and sprinkle with sugar before baking, or dust the baked outlines with powdered sugar. Talevich uses a coating chocolate to drizzle stripes onto the assembled cookies.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com.