Recipe

Holiday Sables

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Holiday Sables

Photo by monkeymom

  • This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Open House Dish
  • Kitchen Butterfly's Testing Notes: I'd been dreaming of chocolate cookies and then monkeymom's recipe strolled in. The recipe was a snap to put together. While forming the dough logs, I had to barricade myself and the cookie...

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  • Chef

    monkeymom's Notes: When it comes to holiday get-togethers, chocolate never seems to disappoint. My kids love these cookies, but they always disagree about how to top them. While my daughter likes dark chocolate...

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Serves 50

  1. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, vanilla seeds, and salt on low speed in a mixer. Add butter a little at a time. The mixture will look very sandy. Once all the butter has been added, add the egg yolk and continue to mix. It will come together but not completely.

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  2. Cover plastic wrap onto a work surface and dump dough mixture onto it. Form dough into three logs about 1 ½ in wide and 10 inches long. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely chilled.

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  3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Unwrap log and cut slices a little less than 1/4 inch (I get 5 cookies/inch). Place on cookie sheet lined with a silicone liner or parchment paper. Bake for 9 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and let cool.

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  4. Frost cooled cookies with thickened ganache frosting and top with decorations. Let ganache harden.

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  5. Emergency topping: Another way I have frosted these is to place 4 bittersweet chocolate chips on top of each cookie when they come out of the oven. Put back into oven for 1 minute, then remove. Using the back of a spoon, spread melted chocolate over each cookie, then sprinkle with peppermint shards. Remove to wire rack and let cool. Use only bittersweet chocolate chips for this.

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Dark or White chocolate ganache:

8 oz white chocolate or dark chocolate either in chip form or chopped Ask a question about this ingredient

½ cup heavy whipping cream Ask a question about this ingredient

  1. Heat heavy whipping cream in a small saucepan until bubbly. Remove from heat and pour over chocolate. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is uniform. Let cool, stirring periodically until thickened and spreadable. Don't refrigerate or it may seize.

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  2. Note: you can add a couple of drops of peppermint extract to the ganache to up the minty-ness if you are using crushed candy canes.

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24 Comments on Holiday Sables

Monkeys Reply

So glad you like them KitchenButterfly! Thanks so much for testing them (with your daughter!). I agree that these are very versatile. Hazelnut and cinnamon sound so good!

Mrs Reply

Yum! I just saw these now!! So funny, my husband brought home a few cookies from work the other day, and it was a chocolate cookie with white chocolate topping and crushed candy canes on top, and I thought "wow this is a really great cookie!" Now I can make them! Thanks for recipe, monkeymom!

Monkeys Reply

Your welcome mrsL! Hope you like them!

Chocolate_peppermint_truffle_cookies_032 Reply

Wow!!!! Love love love these. I just iced them and sprinkled candy cane pieces and all set to go with all my cookies i baked today. I love your recipe and thought I'd pass along another idea for a ganache i've done: add a little strained apricot preserves. It adds some pectin to firm up the chocolate nicely and brings out a subtle hint of fruit to the chocolate. Thanks mm!!!

Ozoz_profile Reply

What a wonderful ganache idea. Now I'm tempted to share one back - I mae citrus dust all the time - I cut and oven dry thin slices of citrus, mostly orange. Once dried, I blend, sieve twice and then the powder to the ganache for a burst of flavour

Ab_sum Reply

Great ideas! Nice recipe, monkeymom.

Chocolate_peppermint_truffle_cookies_032 Reply

I love your idea too, KB! I'm definitely going to try making citrus dust!! Thanks so much for the idea.

Chocolate_peppermint_truffle_cookies_032 Reply

I just went to your blog to read it, KB. Thanks so much! I've saved it so I can make these over the holidays!! And I love your blog - and really love the photos!! So beautiful!

Monkeys Reply

Wow! I'm so happy you like them! I love the idea about the ganache! I also have been eyeing your citrus dust for months KB. There are so many uses for it and it's a great time of year to use them. So cool!

Ozoz_profile Reply

I'm testing these.......so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monkeys Reply

Yay! I made them again a couple of days ago and they actually made more than 50 cookies...so be prepared for that!

Ozoz_profile Reply

Thanks monkeymom but I can assure you that between home and office, there'll be nary a sable to spare!!!!!!!

Shamrock-medal Reply

These are gorgeous! I bet the white chocolate ganache on the dark chocolate cookie is divine.

Monkeys Reply

Note: I made a mistake in this recipe - it should be 2 sticks of butter (1 cup), not 2 cups!
food52 editors, please help! Thanks and sorry if anyone has tried it with the wrong amount!

F52_avatar Reply

Fixed!

Chocolate_peppermint_truffle_cookies_032 Reply

Whew! I'm making these on Friday!

Monkeys Reply

Whew indeed! I'd feel so bad if you had made them that way. I made these again today as sandwich cookies with a white chocolate filling (like oreos). The sable dough is in the beginning very sandy but if you keep mixing it, it will come together. It reminds me of pate sucree. It's very forgiving. You can roll these and cut cookies or reroll scraps into a log and cut them pretty well when they are not still room temp. Hope they go well for you!

Chocolate_peppermint_truffle_cookies_032 Reply

My husband loved these so much that the only improvement he could recommend was making cookie sandwiches, as you did, so you could more of them more quickly :-) I made extra dough and froze it. Having some friends over next Saturday and think I'll add these little cookies to the dessert plate.

Reply

These look great. I think I will add it to my 2010 holiday cookie trials. Have you ever thought of putting some rum in the sable?

Chocolate_peppermint_truffle_cookies_032 Reply

I have to bring 5 dozen cookies to a holiday party, and these have GOT to be one of the types I bring. They soooooo good!

Monkeys Reply

Thanks CS! Let me know how it goes!

Wedding_pictures_162 Reply

oh, yummmmmmm.

Monkeys Reply

thanks drb!

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