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Pistachio Chocolate Sable Cookies
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Hi loves! Oh it’s me. Apologies for going MIA for a week. I’ve been in Vermont quite literally snuggling up with a bunch of goats.
But of course I had to break the blog-a-dog silence by bringing you these stellar Pistachio Chocolate Sable Cookies. So here they are!
What is a sable cookie?
Derived from the French word for “sandy,” a sable cookie is basically a buttery shortbread cookie, but it’s somehow more moist. It’s dense for sure, but melts in your mouth in this lovely way. They’re crispy, crumbly, and oh-so good.
Sable cookies originated in the Normandy region of France and can be eaten plain or dressed up a bit. These taste wonderful with jam or cream sandwiched between them, or drizzled with chocolate. I jazzed up my favorite recipe from Dorie Greenspan by dipping the cookies in chocolate and covering them in pistachios. The combination is just wonderful.
Tips for making these sable cookies
Using unsalted butter is key in this recipe, as you’ll need a lot of it. When making shortbread-like cookies, it’s best if you control the amount of salt going into the recipe. This way the sweetness of the cookie isn’t overpowered by the salt! You’ll also want the butter to be at room temperature before you cream it, as you want it to go nice and fluffy. Even though these chocolate sable cookies are meant to be on the denser side, you don’t want them to be too heavy.
Once you add the flour to the cookie dough, mix everything together until just incorporated. Over mixing the dough will result in cookies that are rock hard and tough to eat. You’re going for a crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth cookie, which is achievable only if you work the dough lightly!
Finally, freezing the cookie dough is absolutely crucial in this cookie recipe. This allows the butter to harden and prevents the sable cookies from turning to goo in the oven. These cookies need to maintain their shape while they’re baking; if they spread out too much the texture will be off and you won’t have true sable cookies.
Because the cookie dough requires freezing, this is the perfect cookie recipe to have on hand during the holidays. You don’t need to thaw out the dough before baking it, so you can make a big batch of cookie dough and keep it stored in your freezer for visits from friends and family!
Anywho. Hope you all had fabulous long weekends (/to all you Canadians out there, Canadian Thanksgiving! Jelly).
Print- Yield: 16 cookies
Pistachio Chocolate Sable Cookies
Recipe from Dorie Greenspan
- Yield: 16 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 11 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
- 10 oz dark chocolate, chopped
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1/2 cup pistachios, chopped
Instructions
Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together. Set aside.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
Turn off the mixer. Pour in the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces, and mix only to incorporate.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Using a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and cool completely.
Microwave the chopped dark chocolate and coconut oil in 20 second increments until fully melted. Dip each cookie halfway in the chocolate mixture, then set on a cooling rack to harden. Sprinkle immediately with chopped pistachios. Once all your cookies have been dipped, drizzle the remaining chocolate over the cookies.
More chocolate cookie recipes from Broma Bakery:
Giant Bourbon Chocolate Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Inside-Out Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hi Sarah! Yesterday I made this recipe for the first time and it tasted SO good, my friends really enjoyed them. But I wanted to ask if you think it’s possible to make them bigger (wider), should I do only one big log and cut them? I’m also thinking of adding some of the pistachio in the dough!
Thank you 🙂
Are the chocolate chips milk or dark?
You can use either. I used dark.
Hi Sarah,
made these just now-mine spread like crazy :(. They taste amazing but they don’t look at all like these beautiful pictures. Can you please tell me what could be the reason?
Thanks a lot!
Chandani
Hi Chandani! If they spread like crazy, I think you may have gotten a measurement wrong. This is a VERY dense, dry dough. I’d try again!
Hey Sarah,
Made these again today and had the same issue with spreading, not sure what is happening-I followed the directions exactly. They do taste awesome ????
I drizzled them with milk chocolate and sprinkled pistachio powder on top, so they do look very festive and pretty but I want them to look like your cookies!