Sables biscuits

[smallblueplanet]

Especially for chocclare and shirlthegirl43....

200g plain flour
a pinch of salt
80g icing sugar
130g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp real vanilla essence
1 egg, beaten, to glaze

Makes about 10

1 9cm fluted biscuit cutter
several baking sheets, greased

Mix the flour, salt, icing sugar and diced butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine sand.

Add the egg yolks and vanilla and process again until the mixture comes together as a firm dough. Turn it out of the processor, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 15 minutes.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the chilled dough to about 5mm thick, then cut out rounds with the fluted cutter. Space them a little apart on baking sheets.

Knead the trimmings together, roll again, cut more rounds and arrange them on the sheets. Brush the rounds very lightly with beaten egg, then chill for 15 minutes.

Brush again with the egg glaze, prick all over with a fork, then mark with the prongs to make a neat pattern.

Bake the biscuits in a preheated oven at 180C (330F) Gas4 for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven, leave on the baking sheets for a few seconds to firm up, then carefully transfer to a wire rack.

Let cool completely, then store in an airtight container and eat within one week, or freeze for up to one month.


[For authentic taste, make these vanilla-scented French biscuits with unsalted best-quality butter.]



From the book 'Cookies, Biscuits and Biscotti' by Linda Collister (ISBN-10: 1841725331)

[shirlthegirl43]

Thanks for that - sounds good. Will give those a try on the next baking day!

Do I assume the flour gets processed with the sugar salt and butter?

[smallblueplanet]

Thanks for that - sounds good. Will give those a try on the next baking day!

Do I assume the flour gets processed with the sugar salt and butter?

Oh poo, missed a word out, will edit it.

[ChocClare]

Manda, you little beauty!

Finest unsalted butter is luckily in abundance chez nous as I bought up a large portion of Tesco's double cream supply at New Year when it was reduced to 20p per pint and spent the next few days transforming it into butter which is now mainly in our freezer. Half of it had wonderful coarse sea salt crystals added and the other half is in its virgin state - ideal for this recipe. So, next Saturday I shall get baking in time for Laetare Sunday aka Biscuit Fest.

Thanks again.

[smallblueplanet]

...I bought up a large portion of Tesco's double cream supply at New Year when it was reduced to 20p per pint and spent the next few days transforming it into butter which is now mainly in our freezer.....

How did you do that? Got a butter churn out the back...

Let us know if they taste as good as they look? For an encore (later on) I might post the biscotti recipe (fabulous), if anyone likes them? TBH the whole book is drool-worthy if you're a biscuit fan.

[ChocClare]

How did you do that? Got a butter churn out the back...

I left it so it wasn't too too fresh (in fridge couple of days), then left it out of the fridge for the morning to bring it up to temperature. Then bunged it in the Kenwood Chef and turned the whisk on. It got to really thick whipped cream stage. I kept going. It got more clotty. I kept going. It started to break up - definite milk in among the cream. I turned the speed down low. When there were grains of solid and more liquid, I turned the machine off. I tipped the lot through a sieve into another bowl. The liquid in the bowl I poured into small plastic bottles saved for the purpose and put in the freezer. This is buttermilk and makes the most fantastic pancakes. I put my hands in the sieve and squeezed the solids together - they come together in a lump quite readily. Then I turned on the cold tap and washed and squeezed, washed and squeezed until all the milk was washed away and the water ran clear. I then bashed the resultant lump (which was now yellow and looked like butter) between two wooden spatulas (I don't own any butter pats) and patted it on kitchen paper, squeezed and patted, squeezed and patted until there was no water anywhere in it. Then I bashed it flat, sprinkled salt crystals on it and kneaded the salt in (for the salted version), wrapped it in greaseproof paper for the unsalted version.

This makes it sound harder than it actually was. We also have a Magic Bullet (blender/liquidiser thing) which I've also made butter in - that's more tedious though, because once it's too thick, the machine won't work any more and you have to shake it by hand until it starts sloshing as the curds and whey separate.

Butter is dead easy to make - the only thing you have to remember is to wash out all the buttermilk as otherwise it won't keep very well. And it tastes FANTASTIC. Have a go!

[smallblueplanet]

Hmmm, I'm sure you make it sound easier than it was - it doesn't sound easy!

Out of interest, how much cream gives you how much butter?

[ChocClare]

It's dead easy, just a little time-consuming (and messy, if you do loads in a tiny kitchen, like me ). A pint of cream makes about half a pound of butter, I think. So not worth doing unless cream is on special offer, but if it is then 20p plus the electricity for mixing is not a bad price, I don't think.

I found other instructions for you to try, which I've cut and pasted from an American website - I do rinse it under cold water at the end to get every last vestige of buttermilk out (this also makes it less squishy and more "set") but otherwise the method is the same:

1. Pour the cream into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk. Tightly cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and start mixer on medium-high speed. (I didn't do this - don't think it would work with a Kenwood Chef - perhaps that's why I got cream all over the kitchen, lol.). The cream will go through the whipped stage, thicken further and then change color from off-white to pale yellow; this will take at least 5 to 8 minutes. When it starts to look pebbly, it’s almost done. After another minute the butter will separate, causing the liquid to splash against the plastic wrap. At this point stop the mixer.

2. Set a strainer over a bowl. Pour the contents of the mixer into the strainer and let the buttermilk drain through. Strain the buttermilk again, this time through a fine-mesh sieve set over a small bowl; set aside.

3. Keeping the butter in the strainer set over the first bowl, knead it to consolidate the remaining liquid and fat and expel the rest of the buttermilk. Knead until the texture is dense and creamy, about 5 minutes. Strain the excess liquid into the buttermilk. Refrigerate the buttermilk.

4. Mix salt into the butter, if you want. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate.

[smallblueplanet]

....Tightly cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and start mixer on medium-high speed. (I didn't do this - don't think it would work with a Kenwood Chef - perhaps that's why I got cream all over the kitchen, lol.).....

Lol! I think our Kenwood has a nifty plastic 'lid' for the mixing bowl.

Thanks for the info, it sounds easy if you see any cheap double cream, as you say.

[bluemoon]

I've always fancied making my own butter, I've also been told that it can be done in a bread machine - has anyone tried that? I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open for cream that's cheap because it's close to it's sell by date though.