Sable Cookies

Photo: flickr user enfad

Ingredients

12 tablespoons unsalted butter

cup sugar

2 egg yolks

2 cups flour

1 egg yolk beaten with

1 teaspoon water

Preparation

Fit processor with steel blade. Process the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the 2 egg yolks and mix for 30 seconds. Add half the flour and process until smooth. Add remaining flour and process until blended. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 2 to 4 hours.

Keep dough in the refrigerator until ready to use, and then roll only a third at a time on a very well-floured board. Roll about 1/8-inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters, or a 2-inch biscuit cutter, and transfer immediately onto a buttered baking sheet. Keep the cut cookies chilled until you have finished cutting all the dough.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush the top of each cookie with yolk-and-water glaze; sprinkle lightly with sugar. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until cookies are pale golden. Remove to rack and cool.

This recipe yields sixty 1 3/4-inch cookies or fifteen 3 1/4-inch cookies.

Comments: Rich, buttery sable cookies come from Caen, a small oceanside town in France's Normandy region. Sable means "sand" or "sandy," which aptly describes the cookie's delicate and crumbly texture a cross between sugar cookies and shortbread.