Terra Americana

This recipe for Cocoa Sablés was adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table.

• 2 cups Almond Flour
• 1/2 cup Arrowroot
• 1/2 cup Brown Rice Flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 8 oz Soy Garden or butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp Orange Vanilla Sugar
• ¼ pound semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (optional)

Combine the butter and sugars until it just comes together.  Do not cream.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture until just combined, scraping 1-2 times.

Divide the dough into two portions and make them into logs about 1 ¾ inches in diameter.  Form them into logs, wrap them in parchment and then chill the logs for about 15 minutes.  To make them perfectly round, remove them from the fridge and roll the logs back and forth on the counter to round out any bumps.  Then chill them again until firm.  Cookies are generally best if they have some time to rest, so chill the logs at least 3 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Remove the logs from the refrigerator and slice them into ½ inch rounds.  (You can slice them thinner for a more delicate look.)  Bake them as is, or roll the edges in granulated sugar or dessicated coconut.  Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet about 1 inch apart and bake for 10-14 minutes.  The cookies are done when they feel dry on top and are somewhat firm to the touch.

Cool the cookies and store them in an airtight container. Cookies like this will keep in rolls in the freezer for a few months.  Wrap them in parchment and then in plastic wrap and store them for a quick and easy cut and bake cookie.

More for the cookie monster in all of us:

• White chocolate and nice spiced cookies, perfect for dunking

• Ginger Snap Cookies

• What we did with the Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

• Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

Photo Credit:  Julie Cecchini