These cookies are essentially chocolate sable cookies accented with some lovely fleur de sel. The recipe says they are the brainchild of French pastry genius. It just so happens that this week we are also talking about good ole’ Pierre in husbands posts on our recent battle brioche.
I was excited to make these cookies since she speaks so highly of them in her book. I did use the fleur de sel, since I was able to find a sizable jar of it for $9.99 at Fairway while I was visiting my parents in New York.
As many already said in the P&Q, these cookies were extremely crumbly. This dough does not come together without some kneading and pressure. I was a little discouraged by this, but I pressed on and husband helped form them into logs.
As you can see, they were more square than round and were definitely thicker than the 1 1/2 inch diameter that she suggests. I took the advice of some on the P&Q and froze the logs before attempting to cut them. I kept them in the freezer for about 90 minutes. They stayed together for the most part, but I had to cut them pretty thick (about 3/4 inch to 1 inch thick) otherwise they would crumble into a mess. Again, I was discouraged.
I threw whatever cookies had not crumbled onto a Silpat and stuck them in the oven hoping for the best. Since they were larger and thicker than the recipe suggests, I doubled the cooking time. As discouraging as this process was, these cookies tasted great. Though I wished they looked more like I pictured them, round and delicate. I think next time I make them I will try a different method of shaping them or adding some extra moisture.
UPDATE: After I wrote this post, I kept thinking about these cookies. So…I made them again on Monday night. This time I cheated and added an egg to the dough. However, it really helped bring the dough together and made it much easier to shape into logs.
This time I actually got it shaped into a round log and it was about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. I froze the logs for about an hour, then moved them to the fridge for another hour. I let them warm up for about 5 minutes at room temperature before I cut them. They cut fairly easily into 1/2 inch rounds and I had noticeably less crumbly mess than the first go around.
These were so much better the second time. I would describe them as the most delicious chocolate chocolate chip cookies I have ever had. They even made me want to pour a glass of milk for dipping, and I hate drinking milk. I will definitely make these again, with the addition of the egg, despite what a certain French pastry genius might think. 😉