Oh February – the month of love, flowers, chocolate, and cheesiness. From those four characteristics, I fall for three, and flowers get left in the dust.
I know it sounds kind of awful to dislike flowers, but I never know what to do with them. I’m terrible at taking care of them, as I am with most plants in general – I’m THAT person who once killed a mini cactus by forgetting about it and knocking it over. Moreover, I grew up in a world where the gifts I received were practical and possessed a decent amount of utility, and so when I receive flowers, I can’t help but find them a bit of a nuisance that I have to clean up after once they shed their petals all over my tablecloth.
That said, if there were flowers that I could eat, then that’s a different story, which is how these florally-inclined sablé cookies (French shortbread) came to fruition.
Sablé means “sandy” in French, and these cookies mimic a similar crumbly texture but with much more deliciousness. Cookies as simple as these bake best with high quality ingredients, which is why I advise using the best butter you can find. I used Kerrygold, a sweet Irish butter that contains higher fat content than American butter. The additional fat lends itself to a flavorful cookie tinged with cardamom for a twist on a French classic.
While I have no clue how to cut or arrange flowers, I can cut flower-shaped cookies just fine. Fifty cookies and a hefty drizzle of caramel sauce later (an optional garnish if you don’t plan on packaging these), I have a final product that makes me fall in all sorts of love with flowers and February.
The way to my heart.
- 8 ounces butter, room temperature
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter, powdered sugar, salt, and cardamom together until well-incorporated, about 3-4 minutes. Add in vanilla.
- Add flour and mix on the lowest setting until JUST mixed – do not overmix.
- Shape dough into a disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour until firm but pliable.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with Silpat or parchment paper and set aside.
- On a Silpat or a well-floured surface, roll out the dough until it is 3/4″ thick on all sides. Use a 1″ wide cookie cutter to punch out shapes and place them on the prepared baking sheet. If the dough gets too sticky to handle, stick it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to firm up.
- Bake for 7-10 minutes until the bottom of the cookies are a light brown color. Let cool on a wire rack . If not packaging the cookies, drizzle with caramel sauce before eating.
I’d take a dozen of these sable flowers over real flowers any day! Our problem is that the cats eat flowers, so we have to hide any and all flowers in the guest room. The cardamom in these sable cookies is killing me – I want to eat all of them!