Joy the Baker

Citrus Sables

by 48 Comments

My week- ridiculous.

My best, most darling friend has decided to move from Los Angeles to some strange state called…. Florida?  It’s wonderful for her.  I’m just heartbroken that I won’t have her around to watch me bake and drink wine and talk for hours and hours.

I can get over that heartbreak thanks to my immense amount of rollover cell phone minutes.  I’ll be fine…

BUT!  It seems like  I’ve been saying goodbye to my friend at goodbye parties all week long.  I’m not really a girl that goes to bars, but it seems like each night of the week I’ve been raising a glass to my friend.  It’s been fun.  It’s been almost too fun!  Each night is more ridiculous than the next.

If you haven’t been to a bar in a while, well, let me tell you, it’s madness.  In just one week I’ve… Well let’s just say that I’m going to church in the morning, and no, I didn’t get a tattoo… or did I?

Bon Voyage Sonia my love.

Enough of that, we have cookies to discuss.

These citrus sables will class up any ridiculous week.  Throw together a batch of these slice and bake French butter cookies, and those beers and bar fights will be a distant memory.

Citrus Sables

Baking: from my home to yours

Print this Recipe!

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter (preferably high-fat, like Plugra), softened at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted before measuring
1/2 teaspoon salt, preferably sea salt
2 large egg yolks, preferably at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour.

zest of 1 lemon and zest of 1 lime

For the decoration (optional):
1 egg yolk
Crystal or dazzle sugar.

1. Working in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until it is smooth and very creamy. Rub the zest of the lemon and lime into the granulated sugar with your fingertips, creating a fragrant sugar.  Add the sugars and salt to the butter and continue to beat until smooth and velvety, not fluffy and airy, about 1 minute. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in 2 egg yolks, again beating until well blended.

2. Turn off the mixer, pour in the flour, drape a kitchen towel over the mixer and pulse the mixer about 5 times at low speed for 1 or 2 seconds each time. Take a peek; if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of more times; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, stir for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough and the dough looks uniformly moist. If you still have some flour on the bottom of the bowl, stop mixing and use a rubber spatula to work the rest of it into the dough. (The dough will not come together in a ball — and it shouldn’t. You want to work the dough as little as possible. What you’re aiming for is a soft, moist, clumpy dough. When pinched, it should feel a little like Play-Doh.)

3. Scrape the dough onto a work surface, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each piece into a smooth log about 9 inches long (it’s easiest to work on a piece of plastic wrap and use the plastic to help form the log). Wrap the logs well and chill them for at least 2 hours. The dough may be kept in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

4. When ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and keep it at the ready.

5. To decorate the edges of the sables, whisk the egg yolk until smooth. Place one log of chilled dough on a piece of waxed paper and brush it with yolk (the glue), and then sprinkle the entire surface of the log with sugar. Trim the ends of the roll if they are ragged and slice the log into 1/3-inch-thick cookies.

6. Place the rounds on the baking sheet, leaving an inch of space between each cookie, and bake for 17 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet at the halfway point. When properly baked, the cookies will be light brown on the bottom, lightly golden around the edges and pale on top. Let the cookies rest 1 or 2 minutes before carefully lifting them onto a cooling rack with a wide metal spatula. Repeat with the remaining log of dough. (Make sure the sheet is cool before baking each batch.)

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Liz

    Lime! Oh my. Once at a patisserie in the Latin quarter of Paris the baker told me that lime was the key to his lemon creations.

    Reply

  2. Sue

    Joy, I just made these for a meeting of my local quilting guild, and they were a smash. I also made some dark chocolate chip espresso cookies, so these seemed like the perfect counterpart. They got rave reviews! Also, I used some lime green and bright yellow colored sugar to roll the logs in, so they were very sparkly on the platter. Several people came up to me and said “Okay, what’s in these? They’re fabulous!” I will definitely be making them again. Thanks for making me look like a rock star!

    Reply

  4. Annalea

    sigh….the humble little butter cookie. my absolute favorite and often disregarded like a red-headed step-child. i’ve made your version twice now and i love them! in fact, i just put another batch in the freezer: cranberry and orange with half of the flour swapped out for whole wheat.

    you’re probably too young :-) to remember video arcades but they were huge when i was a young teen. anyway, my mom (who was totally addicted to frogger and ms. pacman, i mean, like, patterns for each level addicted) would take me to this particular arcade at the local mall and right next to it was a little bakery that sold the most buttery butter cookies you could possibly imagine. so much butter, in fact, that within moments of filling the bag with them it would start to get translucent from all that glorious butter.

    they’ve been my favorite ever since.

    Reply

  5. Terrianne

    Hi Joy,

    So, ever since I made these cookies months back my gram has been asking ‘when are you going to make those delicious citrus butter cookies again?’, and asking, and asking…I finally found the perfect oppurtunity to make them again when my lavender bloomed. I omitted the lime, doubled the lemon and added lavender. Joy, you have created an absolute winner of a cookie here. You rock, Woman!

    =)

    Reply

  6. Terrianne

    Yay! And also, I didn’t have crystal or dazzle sugar so I sifted powdered sugar over them after they cooled. They taste just like cookies I used to get from a bakery that closed down in my neighborhood, here in Boston. Wow!

    Thanks again. Happy Spring!!!

    Reply

  7. Terrianne

    Thanks so much Joy. This is the fourth recipe of yours I’ve made. Pictures on my blog!

    I, in addition to the egg yolk, added a teaspoon of lemon extract to the butter and sugar mixture.

    I thought I may have royally screwed up because I was a little confused that “add sugars” meant the granulated AND the powered sugar. I added the powdered sugar after I mixed in the egg yolk, but no worries. They were perfect!

    Thanks for all your inspiring dishes!

    Reply

  8. Olivia

    so. i just made these and forgot to add in the salt before the dough was in the freezer. i was wondering why the dough tasted so out of balance…so anyways, i used sea salt and a little sugar on the edges before slicing.

    can i just say. lime flavored delicious with salt around the edges: MARGARITA COOKIES. YES. best mistake EVER. you should all make this mistake too.

    @Emily–i wound up with 48. but i cut REALLY inconsistently–some are probably half an inch thick, some are like…a bit more than an eighth. facepalm. but that should still even out to about 4 dozen, i would wager.

    Reply

  9. Emily

    Yum, I absolutely love citrus and am planning to make these soon. Quick question: how many cookies does this recipe make? Thanks. :)

    Reply

  11. Ruth Miles

    Okay, I made the Citrus Sables and the first batch was burnt – so disappointing (though we are eating them anyway). The second batch is heavenly! As in too heavenly – like I want to eat the whole batch by myself with a big glass of milk or a couple cups of tea.

    Reply

  12. Geraldine

    I made another batch but this time I added more zest and didn’t cut into 2 logs. They were even better. And my mom who has very particular taste loved loved them Thanks Joy

    Reply

  13. Geraldine

    Once again a real pleaser. Sweet and tangy such a lovely combo.I might be too pleased but after so many disappointing recipes that have wasted so many ingredients,I find myself thrilled when the recipes turn out wonderfully delicious. Thanks Joy I’m making nectarine cobbler next.

    Reply

  14. Elizabeth

    Joy,

    I made a batch last night and froze the rolls, which I will bake in 2 weeks. How long do they need to be out of the freezer?

    Elizabeth

    Reply

  16. Deborah

    I was looking for a new cookie recipe that I might make “not so sweet” for my favorite cookie eater… and found these scrumptious sounding sables!!!! We are lime fans and I can’t wait to try this recipe. Thanks!

    Reply

  18. Ang

    Joy,
    I had a dinner party recently and made a few of your recipes.
    The muffins and the citrus sables were a smash.
    You’re an inspiration, please keep on creating..
    Will keep on checking yoru website…. :)
    Ang from Melb, Australia

    Reply

  19. Suzanne

    These cookies look really good! I’m making them right now! They’re at the “chill in fridge” step. Can’t wait to bake them tonight. The fruit smelled amazing when zesting. Thanks for sharing!

    Suzanne

    Reply

  23. Mary Lynn

    These are wonderful! I made them this past weekend and they were a huge hit. I can’t wait to use other flavorings as well, maybe throw in some chopped pistachios or something.

    Question: Would using a liquid flavoring harm this recipe? Like if I were to add 1-2 teaspoons of an extract or rosewater, would that throw off their texture/dry them out/other foreseeable disaster? I’ll probably give it a try, but since I’m a novice baker, I thought you (or any other readers) might have some insight?

    Reply

  29. Aimee

    Just so you know, I am taking every cookie you post VERY seriously now. I made your chocolate chip cookies with melted butter on the weekend and it was like an awakening from a deep slumber. I will never make choco-chip cookies with Crisco or shortening again. Yours were so very sumptuous.
    PS. The rest of the dough is sitting in the fridge, awaiting it’s 36 hour fate. Should be interesting.

    Reply

  30. Liz

    We’re not too strange here in Florida, she’ll be ok :) Thanks for all your amazing recipes – I love that these have lime in them. My favorite citrus is incredibly under-represented in baking.
    – Liz

    Reply

  33. Tiffany

    my best girlfriends live states and states away as well–however, i’m the culprit who up and moved. i miss them with my whole heart. but what darling little treats you’ve made for comfort (aren’t cookies the best comfort?!)…i’ll have to try them!

    Reply

  34. dawn

    I have had these before and they are just so tasty. Very easy to eat 20 in a sitting. Sorry about your dear friend. Does she know how humid it is there? Maybe if she knew she would not leave. ;-)

    Reply

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