Pierre Hermé’s Ispahan Sablés
- Total Time
- 45 minutes plus 1 hour for chilling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ¼cup (60 grams) sanding sugar
- ¼teaspoon pure rose extract (like Star Kay White)
- Red liquid food coloring
- ½cup (10 grams) freeze-dried raspberries
- 1½cups (204 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1stick plus 3 tablespoons (155 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ⅓cup (67 grams) sugar
- ½teaspoon pure rose extract (like Star Kay White)
- ¼teaspoon fleur de sel
For the Sugar
For the Sablés
Preparation
- Step 1
To make the sugar: Put the sugar, extract and a few drops of coloring in a small zipper-lock plastic bag, seal the bag and shake until the color is even. Add more color if you'd like.
- Step 2
To make the sablés: Put the raspberries between sheets of wax paper, and crush them with a rolling pin or the bottom of a skillet. Don’t expect perfection — it’s fine to have mostly powder and a few small nuggets. Whisk the raspberries into the flour.
- Step 3
Working with a mixer, beat the butter at medium speed until it’s soft and creamy, but not airy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar, extract and fleur de sel, and beat 3 minutes more. Turn the mixer off, scrape down the bowl, add the flour mixture all at once and pulse the mixer on and off to begin incorporating the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed until the dough forms soft curds and then starts to clean the sides of the bowl. Give it a few last turns with a spatula, then scrape it out onto the counter. Divide the dough into 4 pieces, and roll each into an 8-inch-long log.
- Step 4
Spread the sugar out on a piece of wax paper, and roll the logs in the sugar until they’re completely coated. Wrap each log in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 3 days.
- Step 5
When you’re ready to bake, position the racks to divide the oven into thirds, and preheat it to 325. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Step 6
Unwrap the logs, trim the ends if they’re ragged and cut the logs into ½-inch-thick rounds. Place them on the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each round.
- Step 7
Bake the cookies for 19 to 21 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom and front to back after 10 minutes, or until the cookies are firm around the edges and golden brown on the bottom; the tops will remain pale. Rest the sablés for 2 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks. Serve — or pack into a container — when the cookies come to room temperature.
Private Notes
Comments
Where do you find freeze dried raspberries?
To other readers: clearly you go online to post a question here. Why not just google terms like "sanding sugar, " " dried raspberries," "rose extract." You can get an immediate answer!
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I made these precisely to the recipe and thy were extraordinary. First batch baked 18 mins and they were too well done and bitter. Next batch baked 16 mins and the were perfect. Go for the rose extract, it makes a huge difference. Rose water isn’t strong enough to detect. I found that the sugar didn’t stick well in the first batch so after unwrapping from the Saran swap I rolled them again right before going into the oven and that worked well. Next time more food coloring in the sugar because my sugar ended up the same color as the cookie and so visually it did not stand out.
Made these for Valentine's Day bc I had all the ingredients (except rose extract). Super easy recipe. I wound up using a food processor instead of mixer, and almond extract instead of rose, and I swapped the sanding sugar for a different pink coarse one. Otherwise followed ingredients exactly by weighing. My logs were about 4-5" long and ab 1.25" diam -- which made 30 cookies. They came out deliciously and picture perfect, even though I cooked 5 mins too long (they didn't look done but were). The raspberry flavor pops! Next time I'll use European butter, and add ground cardamom!
Gorgeous, delicate, fragrant little cookies that are easy to make (especially if you measure by weight, not volume). I baked them at 325 for about 12 minutes — if I’d left them in for 19 minutes they would have been burned to a crisp.