These delicate cookies come to me from Edith Leroy, my acknowledged French sister and best early-morning swimming friend. Edith rarely lights in one place for long, unless it is in front of her easel
to paint the gorgeous landscapes, figures, and light-filled still lifes that have made her a locally revered artist or in the kitchen to bake, and whatever she produces is simply delicious. These are a play on the traditional Norman sablé, a plain vanilla butter cookie. With all of the wild hazelnut trees that grow in our part of Normandy, it’s no wonder so many of the nuts find their way into the local fare, particularly pastries. This is just one, simple example.
Makes about 110 1½-inch (4-cm) cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups (280 g) unbleached all-purpose flour Generous pinch of ne sea salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, preferably Vietnamese
8 tablespoons (1 stick/110 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (130 g) sugar
1 large egg
1 generous tablespoon fresh lemon juice ¾ cup (125 g) hazelnuts, ground (¾ cup)
Note: The dough is very fragile and can easily be overworked. Rolling it out more than once risks making the cookies tough. To solve the problem, I roll out the dough and cut as many cookies from
it as I can, using one of my champagne flutes as a cookie cutter because its delicate size is perfect. I shape the scraps into a roll, as gently as I can so I don’t overwork the dough, then either refrigerate or freeze it so it becomes firm. Once the dough is firm, I cut it into ¼- inch-thick rounds and bake those.
Directions:
1. Sift together the flour, the salt, and the cinnamon onto a piece of parchment or wax paper.
2. Place the butter in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer and mix until it is softened and malleable. Slowly incorporate the sugar, mixing until it is combined thoroughly with the butter and the mixture is quite light. Mix in the egg until it is combined thoroughly, then slowly add 1 cup of the flour mixture, mixing well. Then mix in the lemon juice. Add the remaining flour, mixing just until it is combined, then add the ground hazelnuts and mix just until combined. The dough will be quite
soft and thick.
3. Refrigerate the dough for 8 hours or overnight to give the ingredients
a chance to meld and to harden the dough enough so that it can be rolled out.
4. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line two to three baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Roll out one-fourth of the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about ¼ inch (.6 cm) thick. Using either a champagne flute or a cookie cutter that measures about 1½ inches (4 cm) across, cut out as many rounds as you can from the dough. Place the rounds on a prepared baking sheet, leaving about ½ inch (1.25 cm) between the cookies. Gently press together the scraps of dough and form them into a roll that measures 1½ inches (1.25 cm) in diameter. Wrap the roll of dough in plastic wrap or parchment and refrigerate it for an hour or two so it will rm up enough to be cut into thin rounds. (The dough will keep very well in the refrigerator, if well wrapped, for at least 1 week. It can also be frozen for up to 3 months at this point.) Repeat with the remaining dough.
6. Bake the cookies in the center of the oven until they are golden— they will darken more at the edges than in the center—about 10 minutes. (For that little log of dough that remains, you can slice it into
rounds and bake them as above.) Remove the cookies and let them cool to room temperature on a wire cooling rack. They will keep in an airtight container for about 3 days.
