Every Christmas I buy pounds of butter and make mounds of sugar cookies—as I’m sure many of you do—which in France are called sablés. The American and French recipes are similar, though the sablés I buy in French boulangeries are slightly drier and less sweet than our sugar cookies, and equally delicious.
I love decorating the cookies as a group project—this year with my daughter and sister. We are not pros but we like to get creative. We were pretty proud of our wreaths, below (an idea we stole from Instagram--directions for those are here).
But decorated sugar cookies are not just for Christmas. They can make any occasion festive. I have a variety of cookie cutter shapes which are now overflowing in my cabinet. You can get the letters of the alpabet to spell out a name or phrase; my daughter has a tic-tac-toe set. Any theme is possible. And last year I bought a simple decorating kit for just a few euros, which made it all SO much easier.
So shall we broaden our sablé horizon? How about heart shapes for your Valentine this year? For our beloved châtelain Pierre, I made châteaux for his birthday one year (see below). I did French-themed cookies for a party for a friend who was off to France for a month (pictured above). And at a French village flea market we sometimes set up a booth to benefit my cat rescue group, and I made the cookies you will see in the recipe below, to sell at the market.
My secret for making them delicious is to use lemon juice instead of milk for the icing. My daughter likes to add almond extract instead. Sugar cookies can be chocolate too, or other flavors, like the caramel-y castles above. And while you have to be a bit of an artiste to make the fancy ones like you see on Pinterest, don’t be deterred. My daughter and I didn't get the painterly gene, but we managed to turn out something respectable. If we can do it, anyone can. It’s like getting in touch with your inner child, no skill required.
RECIPE: Chocolate Sugar Cookies
For regular sugar cookies, I use this recipe from Ina Garten or this one from Sally's Baking Addiction. Or try a French sablé recipe like this one. Most of the recipes are very similar, but this chocolate variation (from Melissa Clark) is different and quite good. I've included three icing recipes as well.
- 2 cups/255 grams all-purpose flour
- ½ cup/40 grams unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup/225 grams salted butter, preferably European-style butter (2 sticks), softened
- ⅔ cup/135 grams granulated sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in yolk, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Mix in flour mixture until just combined. Form dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
Once chilled, remove plastic wrap and sandwich dough between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out into a 1/3-inch-thick slab. Leaving dough between the parchment, place it on a plate and refrigerate for 30 minutes (or up to 24 hours).
Heat oven to 325 degrees, and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, or a Silpat.
Pull dough from refrigerator, and remove parchment from dough. Cut out as many cookies as possible. Transfer them to the prepared cookie sheets. Reroll the dough scraps and repeat (my tip: if they stick, instead of flouring your hands, the board, or the cutters, use dry cocoa).
Bake cookies for 15 to 22 minutes, until puffed and set, rotating the cookie sheets halfway through. Transfer pans to wire racks to cool completely.
For the icing: Use the lemon for regular sugar cookies, and either of the others for the chocolate ones.
Lemon: Mix 3 cups confectioners sugar with 1 tablespoon meringue powder (the powder is optional, but helps the icing set up better). Stir in fresh squeezed lemon juice (it will take several tablespoons) and beat until icing is very smooth. Stir in food coloring. Icing shouldn’t be so thick that it’s hard to stir , and a bit slow to drip, sort of like honey. Almond: As above, but use milk instead of lemon juice and add 1 teaspoon almond extract.
Chocolate: Melt 6 oz dark or white chocolate. Frost cookies and top with sprinkles or colored sugar.
Favorite READS: Félicitations to our loyal reader, the artist Colleen Taylor, who has a new book out! It's a Rainforest is a children's book with illustrations by Colleen. Check it out, it's gorgeous!
