Baking: Lemon Sables

My week-long baking hiatus was thankfully interrupted by...lemon sables (pronounced sah-BLAYS)! These cookies are a nice twist to the traditional plain French butter cookie--everything tastes better with lemons. Their texture is more 'elusive[ly] sandy' (America's Test Kitchen) than chewy, and thus were a big hit with my mom.

The most interesting part of this recipe was the technique used to give the cookies their characteristic cylinder shape. The secret involves wrapping/rolling the dough in parchment paper, and then twisting the ends. Refrigerating this for one hour ensures complete compaction of the dough and maintenance of its form after baking. A picture below illustrates my point:

This goes in the fridge for 1 hour, and then you slice each tube into  1 in thick pieces.

After refrigerating, a good tip given by ATK is to rotate the dough log about 1/4 in. after every 2-3 cookie slices so as not to get a lopsided cookies.

According to ATK, the secret to getting the right sables textures is adding an egg yolk. In their recipe, they recommend pushing the yolk through a strainer. I didn't have one during this baking project, so I made for the next best thing--smushing the yolk between the bottom of my Asian soup spoon and my Korean bowl. Think of it as a modern day mortar-and-pestle. I think this method worked just fine! The goal was to get a finely ground, even yolk mixture, and that I did reach!

After baking is complete, the cookies should appear 'pale golden brown with edges slightly darker than centers' after approximately 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I wasn't able to get cookies that fit this description, but I baked batches at 17 and 19 minutes, with the former being much better. The latter was a little bit too overdone and dry. It's something you have to eyeball though, and below is a picture of the successful batch. 

Lemon sables!!! I know, they don't look particularly golden, but they tasted mighty fine. 

Lemon Sables (Adapted from Cooks' Illustrated November 2008 issue)
Recipe makes about 40 cookies


Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
10 tbsp (1 + 1/4 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp white granulated sugar
1/4 tsp table salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 lemons worth of grated lemon zest
1 + 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour


Recipe:
[0] Wash lemons with soap and water. Use a grater to obtain the zest of 5 lemons. When shopping for lemons, choose those with a bright yellow hue and a relatively smooth texture. Avoid lemons with extreme dimpling.
[1] Fill a pot with water. Set heat on high to bring water to a boil. Add one large egg. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove egg from pot and place in bowl filled with cold water for 5 minutes. Remove egg yolk, and send through strainer. If no strainer is available, another worthy alternative is repeated mushing the yolk between a rounded spoon and a bowl.
[2] Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, salt, and egg yolk on medium speed for about 4.5 minutes until light and fluffy. Use rubber spatula to incorporate mixture stuck to the side of bowl as needed.
[3] Add vanilla and lemon zest. Mix on low speed until incorporated.
[4] Add flour and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds until completely incorporated. At this point, the dough will appear crumbly.
[5] Use spatula and/or hands to compact the dough into one solid ball. Separate the ball into two halves.
[6] Roll each piece of dough into a log about 1 + 3/4 inches in diameter. It does not need to be perfect--after you wrap it in parchment paper, it will achieve the desired uniform shape.
[7] Wrap the log in a 12'' x 12'' piece of parchment paper. Use a piece of tape if desired to attach the paper's free end to the wrapping. Twist the ends tightly to fully compact the dough. Repeat process for the other piece of dough.
[8] Refrigerate both logs for 1 hour until firm.
[9] At the tail-end of your waiting window, preheat the oven for 350 degrees Fahreneheit.
[10] Remove dough logs from refrigerator and unwrap from parchment paper. Using a chef's knife, cut each log into 1 inch thick pieces; remember to rotate the log every 2-3 pieces to prevent lopsided cookies.
[11] Place cookies on parchment paper-lined baking pan. Arrange them so they are about 1 inch apart.
[12] Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 17 minutes. Time may vary depending on your oven. You want the edges to be slightly golden and the center to remain pale; if the edges are a light/dark brown, you have overdone the cookies.
Note: If you are baking two pans simultaneously, place one pan on the top shelf and one on the middle shelf. At around 7 minutes, switch the pans front to back and top to bottom. This ensures for even baking.
[13] Enjoy! Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
[13] Let cookies cool and enjoy.