Sables are a French chocolate biscuit, that, made with real chocolate (at least 75% cocoa solids). Now, I’m not a big fan of chocolate but my husband likes intensely dark chocolate as an occasional indulgence. He also likes orange and chilli with his chocolate so I’ve adapted the base recipe to make my Christmas treat for my husband. Intensely chocolatey sables with chilli and orange. You can omit the chilli if desired or you can substitute hotter or milder (sweet paprika) chilli powder
Prep time: 20 minutes/Cook time: 5 minutes/Makes: 40 x 5cm (2 in) rounds
Ingredients
125g (1 cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
5 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
finely-grated zest of 1 orange
115g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar (less for a more bittersweet cookie)
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp orange blossom water (you could also use vanilla extract)
100g (3 1/2 oz) dark chocolate (at least 75% cocoa solids) very finely grated (you want it almost a powder)
Coarse sugar (I used grated jaggery) for sprinkling
Method:
Sift together the flour, cocoa, chilli powder and baking soda together into a bowl and set aside.
Cream together the butter, sugar, orange zest and salt together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and orange blossom water, beating until combined, then scraping down sides. Add dry ingredients and grated chocolate together and mix until just combined.
Scrape the dough onto a piece of clingfilm (plastic wrap), wrap it up and chill it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, or until just firm. There’s no need for it to become fully hard, or it will be difficult to roll out. However, the dough can be refrigerated until needed, up to a two days, or frozen for longer; just let it warm up to room temperature and soften a bit before rolling it out.
Pre-heat your oven to 175C (155C Fan/350F).
Turn the dough onto a floured work surface. Pat it flat then roll out gently (note that it will still be on the crumbly side, so only attempt to flatten it slightly with each roll). Keep going, rolling gently until it’s about 3mm (1/8-in) thick (for thin biscuits) or 6mm (1/4-in) thick (for thicker ones) or somewhere in-between.
Cut into your desired shapes with a biscuit cutter (I used a round one here, but fluted ones are also nice and you could use a heart for Valentine’s day or snowmen for Christmas, etc). Transfer to lightly greased or lined baking trays, making sure the you space them about 3cm (1 in) apart. Sprinkle decoratively with coarse sugar (if desired).
Transfer to your pre-heated oven and bake for 8 to 10 minutes (for thinner biscuits) or 10 to 12 minutes (for thicker ones). Leave the biscuits on the baking trays to cool a couple of minutes before gently transferring them to wire racks to cool completely. Take care and use a spatula or slice and the biscuits will become harder and more fragile until they cool.
The biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks.
