Author Notes
I initially crafted this recipe after reading of Gluten-Free Girl's uncharacteristic failure in de-glutin-izing the amazing World Peace Cookies (a chocolate sablé with chocolate chunks and a salty edge) from Dorie Greenspan. Sablés are a French shortbread named for their sandy texture, and are a perfect cookie to make gluten-free (as a short and crumbly texture isn't a problem in gf baking). I used nubbly rice flour as the main starch, with a few others along, and a pinch of xanthan to bind. I also busted out a secret weapon: hard-boiled egg yolks. Cooked yolks aren't a common cookie ingredient, but are found in some traditional sablé recipes. They lend a delicious richness, but without the water content and binding properties of raw yolks, or the melting potential of butter. The resulting cookies have a lovely crumbly-but-not-too-crumbly texture, are tidy and adorable, and are rich, chocolatey and just a bit salty. - deensiebat —deensiebat
Test Kitchen Notes
These demure sablés are the perfect combination of light, delicate texture and sheer chocolate-on-chocolate oomph, the kind of cookie Great Aunt Mildred will love just as much as your health nut of a brother-in-law. The dough keeps beautifully, so don't be afraid to make an extra batch whenever inspiration strikes, then freeze for the next rainy, only-cookies-will-make-life-better day. It's best to run the hard-boiled egg yolks through a fine mesh before adding to the batter, just in case. - Kukharka —mitschlag
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Ingredients
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1/2 cup
rice flour
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1/3 cup
sorghum flour
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1/3 cup
tapioca starch
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1/3 cup
cocoa powder
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1/2 teaspoon
xanthan gum
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1/2 teaspoon
baking soda
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1
stick butter, softened to room temperature
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2/3 cup
brown sugar
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1/4 cup
sugar
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1/2 teaspoon
coarse salt
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1 teaspoon
vanilla extract
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2
hard-boiled egg yolks
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2
raw egg yolks
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1/2 cup
chopped chocolate, or a heaping 1/2 cup of miniature chocolate chips (if using the latter, chop a few up into scraps, to get those little bits that will melt into the dough and make it all the better)
Directions
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Sift together the rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca starch, cocoa powder, xanthan gum, and baking soda. Set aside.
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In a mixer, cream together the butter with the brown sugar and sugar until they're light and fluffy. Add the salt, vanilla, and crumble in the hard-boiled egg yolks. If you're mixing by hand, you may want to pass the yolks through a sieve to make sure they are broken up into small pieces, but with a mixer and the granular sugar, you should be fine. Mix another minute or two, until the mixture is well-combined and fluffy. Add the raw yolks, and stir until just combined.
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Add your dry ingredients, mixing until they are completely incorporated. Mix in the chopped chocolate until it is evenly dispersed. Lay out a piece of plastic wrap or waxed or parchment paper (or, if you're me, a cut-open plastic bag because you don't seem to have either of the other items). Take half the dough, shape it into a chubby sausage with a 1 1/2" diameter, and wrap it tightly in your covering of choice. Repeat with the remaining dough. Refrigerate until totally firm (overnight is best).
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The next day, preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment, or grease them well.
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Take out one of your dough tubes, and slice the cookies into discs, somewhere between 1/4" and 1/3" in thickness. Set the rounds of dough onto one of the prepared sheets, leaving a few inches between (they will spread). Bake 12 minutes -- the cookies should be set enough to have something of a crust, but won't feel totally set. Remove from the oven, and let cool on the sheets. Repeat with remaining disc. The cookies will remain slightly soft when warm, but firm up upon cooling. They're delicious either way.
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