Sablés aux olives noires – Black Olive Biscuits

As promised, here’s the recipe for the olive sablés.  The day prior to our party that recent Saturday evening, I happened to find a cylinder of the dough in the freezer.  It’s one of my versions of a Pillsbury® slice and bake sugar cookie and what we enjoyed with our Kir Royale.

I have found with any refrigeator cookie/sablé/cracker dough, it is easier to form it into a cylinder and slice it off as needed than it is to roll out between parchment paper, refrigerate, cut out, re-roll scrapes, etc.  This recipe was adapted from one by Pierre Hermé, the King of Pastry.

Makes 60 biscuits

1 large hard-boiled egg, white discarded
2 ¼ cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons (2 ½ ounces) potato starch
15 tablespoons (7 ½ ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup fruity olive oil
1 cup (4 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
2 ½ ounces (about ½ cup) pitted black olives, preferably oil-cured, chopped

Using a fork, mash the hard-boiled egg yolk into fine crumbs in a small bowl.

With a mesh strainer set over a large bowl, sift together the flour and potato starch; whisk to incorporate and set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy.  Beat in the olive oil, followed by the finely crumbled egg yolk.

Reduce the mixer speed to low.  Blend in the confectioners’ sugar and add the other dry ingredients.  Mix until the dough just comes together.

Stir in the chopped olives.  Turn the dough out onto a work surface, divide it into thirds, and shape each piece into a cylinder about 1 ½-inches in diameter.

Wrap the dough in parchment paper and then plastic wrap.  Chill for several hours or overnight.  (The dough can be frozen for up to 6 months and baked off later.)

Preheat the oven to 325°F.  Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

Working with one cylinder at a time, slice the cookies ¼-inch thick and arrange them on the baking sheet.

Bake the sablés for 15 to 18 minutes.  Transfer to a rack to cool and repeat with remaining logs of dough.

Photograph by Lou Miranda