Sourdough chocolate cardamom sables
Some call me a resourceful queen. Why? I never throw away that heel of sourdough that's been lying in the brown paper bag for over a week because it's good breadcrumb material! Not just any old breadcrumbs, I jazz it up with some brown butter and honey too. This is Pierre Herme's chocolate sable recipe. He's a real pastry king in my opinion and this biscuit is legendary so I hope he doesn't mind me chucking some stale bread in there, it's for the texture Pierre!
Ingredients:
Sourdough breadcrumbs:
80g stale sourdough
40g unsalted butter
30g honey
1 tsp flaky salt
Sable:
150g unsalted butter, soft
120g dark brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
175g plain flour
30g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
80g sourdough breadcrumbs
50g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan
For the sourdough breadcrumbs: In a food processor, blitz the sourdough a fine crumb. Sprinkle onto a baking sheet and toast until golden, about 5-10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt the butter over a low-medium heat. When it has completely melted turn up the heat to medium and continue stirring until it turns brown. Remove from heat and stir in the honey and flaky salt.
Once the breadcrumbs are golden, transfer to a bowl and mix with the brown butter and honey. Give it a good mix and transfer to the baking sheet and toast again for 5-10 minutes until crispy. Leave to cool.
For the sable: In a large bowl beat the butter, sugars and cardamom together until light, about 2 minutes.
In a separate bowl , whisk together the flour, cocoa, bicarb and salt. Add this to the sugar/butter along with the breadcrumbs and dark chocolate. Mix until it starts to come together and finish by bringing it together with your hands to form a ball of dough. It will be quite crumbly with all the breadcrumbs.
Roll into a large log, roughly 25cm long. Refrigerate to firm up, about 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Remove cookie log from fridge and with a large bread/serrated knife slice into rounds about 1/2 inch thick and arrange on a lined baking sheet, well spaced out.
Bake for 12-14 minutes- don't overbake!
Substitutes:
Sourdough breadcrumbs- 85g dark chocolate, toasted pecans
Makes 17-18 biscuits