Recipe: Breton shortbread (Sablé breton)

Brittany is a charming region in the north of France. It is very close to the UK, with which it shares some traditions and cultural aspects (and also the weather, I would say).

The region is also famous for two great local products: butter and sea salt.

No wonder, then, than the recipe for the Breton shortbread (“Sablé breton” in French), a specialty of the region, is characterised by a remarkable amount of butter and a perfectly balanced salty aftertaste.

Breton shortbreads can be eaten as simple biscuits, but also used as tart crust, with their very rich taste and crumbly texture.

The recipe is quite particular since here, unlike in other common tart dough, flour is the last ingredient that is incorporated.

The resulting dough is very soft and needs to be rolled out between two sheets of parchment paper. Even if you can cut the shortbreads before baking, it is easier to cut them as soon as they come out of the oven: this way you won’t need many metal cookie cutters/tart rings. The scraps can be kept and coarsely crushed into crumbs to add a crunchy texture to desserts (try with ice creams!).

Breton shortbread

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Ingredients

4	Egg yolks
140g	Granulated sugar
160g	Unsalted butter (room temperature)
210g	Pastry flour
6g	Baking powder
2 pinches	Unrefined sea salt

Directions

Whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar in a bowl

Add the diced soft butter

Whisk vigorously until you obtain a smooth mixture, then incorporate the salt

Add the flour sifted with the baking powder

Stir quickly with a spatula until you obtain a smooth texture

Roll out the dough between two sheets of parchment paper to 1cm thick

Remove the top sheet of parchment paper and bake at 180°C for about 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. 10-15 minutes might be enough if the dough is as thin as a normal tart dough (i.e. 3-5mm)