let's compare some 'sandy' sables

(the little coffee cup is 2" tall)

What is a sable?

My CIA notebook has a recipe for Pecan Sables as follows:

cake flour

no egg

3 parts butter

1 part sugar

1 part cream

1.2 parts flour

refrigerate, slice and bake 

(these were very good)

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Baking and Pastry from CIA has a recipe for Sand Cookies:

all purpose flour

no egg

2.7 parts butter

1 part powdered sugar

3.8 parts flour

refrigerate, slice and bake

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Viking "Around the World Cookie Swap" lists French Sables Korova:

all purpose flour

no egg

chocolate

.8 part flour

1 part butter

1 part sugar

refrigerate, slice and bake

(I remember these cookies melting/dissolving in my mouth upon the first bite.)

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Joy of Baking lists sable ingredients as:

all purpose flour

1 parts butter

.7 part sugar

1 egg

2 parts flour

refrigerate, slice and bake

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Then there is the recipe I followed:

bread flour

1 part butter

.4 part powdered sugar

.2 part egg white

1.1 part flour

pipe with large star tip and bake

I chose this recipe ( "Butter cookies-sables a la poche-sand in your pocket" found at Baked By Me) because the pictures of the sables on the I Bake What I Like blog were beautiful and quite inspiring.  I didn't compare ingredient parts (I've been reading "Ratio" by Michael Ruhlman and now I'm converting everything to ...parts!) ;  I just assumed a sable was a sable.  Bread flour is used in this recipe to help the cookies hold their shape when piped with a large star tip.  The cookies did pipe beautifully, and held their shape after baking.  But, the cookies did not dissolve in my mouth as other sables have.  And, the next time I bake these, I would add much more vanilla, or another flavoring. 

As I said, I baked these because they were - pretty.  I have lemon curd in the freezer.  These cookies would be quite tasty sandwiched together with lemon curd. 

(the mini cupcake holder is about 2" wide)

I still don't know what a sable should be...but these cookies are so cute!