Key Lime Sablés

May 2, 2010



My Cinco de Mayo may be spent serving on jury duty this year so I wanted to post about something light, tart, and sunny...just in case. I even have the Tuesdays with Dorie post all set to pop up at the stroke of midnight Tuesday morning. I'm really hoping that when I call in tomorrow evening I'll be told that I don't have to serve. Am I lazy? No. I just don't want to do it. Maybe it's the word 'duty' that turns me off. As soon as I know I have to do something, I automatically don't want to do it. I like to do things because I choose to. My art work was 100% better when I worked at my own pace and could pick a subject, but as soon as an assignment came up along with a deadline, my creativity flew out the paint splattered studio window. If they called it Jury Free Will, I might be interested. Margaritas would help too.


If all the happy, carefree nature of spring could be captured and baked into a cookie, this is what it would taste like. The cookies are flakey, light, and almost too delicate to handle with one hand. As soon as you bite into one, it cracks and crumbles. Which is just what sablés should do. The filling is pure bliss in the form of a thick, tart lime curd. The scales of justice could take a cue from these cookies, they are the perfect harmonic balance between sweet and assertive.



Key Lime Sablés (recipe adapted from Martha Stewart) Print

Cookie Ingredients
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons pure lime extract
Key Lime Curd (recipe follows)

Method
Place flour, confectioners' sugar, granulated sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until well combined. Add butter, and pulse until coarse crumbs form. Add lime extract, and pulse just enough to mix.
Transfer the dough to a clean work surface, and flatten, forming a disk. Wrap the dough in plastic, and transfer to refrigerator; chill until very firm, at least 2 hours.
Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat baking mat or parchment paper. Roll out the dough to a 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Using a 1 3/4-inch fluted cookie cutter, cut the dough into squares. *Obviously I don't have any fluted cookie cutter, but circles work beautifully.* Place squares/circles on the prepared baking sheet, spaced about 1 inch apart. I found that it was easier to do a combination of rolling and patting the dough down with my palm. The constant rolling caused the delicate dough to break apart.
Bake until just golden, 15 to 17 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
To assemble the sandwiches, place 1 teaspoon key lime curd on the underside of half of the cooled squares. Top the curd with the remaining squares to form little sandwiches. Refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes, and serve.

Lime Curd Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons grated key-lime zest, plus 1/4 cup freshly squeezed key-lime juice (6 limes)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Method
Combine sugar, eggs, lime zest, and juice in a medium nonreactive saucepan, and set over medium-low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture begins to thicken and holds the mark of the whisk, 10 to 12 minutes. *It took me closer to 17 minutes*
Remove pan from heat, and whisk in butter, a piece at a time, until well combined. Strain mixture through a sieve into a glass bowl. Lay plastic directly on surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill 3 hours or overnight to set the curd.

Makes 12 sandwich cookies

14 comments:

  1. Hello, I just found your blog. I'm loving it here. Keep posting thes great treats. Looking forward to visiting you more often.

    Lisa

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  2. Hey Valerie, your'e making it harder for me to pick which one of your confections to make for my Mom. She's sitting here with me, and is so impressed with these Key Lime Sables. I can see why too-so uniform and pretty they are!

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  3. What gorgeous cookies! I love lime. I have an little award for you over at The Clayton's blog...do come and visit x

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  4. This looks so cute and yummy. It screams spring! My husband love anything citrus so I think he would love this cookies. I would love to try sometimes. Thanks for sharing!

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  5. Those look awesome. My sister in law loves key lime more than anything, I'll have to send her this recipe.

    Heh, I always thought the government should have taken the idea from The Simpsons and have it be: "You've been chosen to join the Justice Squadron at the Municipal Fortress of Vengeance!" That would make me want to go.

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  6. Hi Lesapea! I just took a look at your blog too and it's gorgeous! The photography, the music, that cherry roll! It's like a mini holiday. :)

    Stella, I think these cookies are hard to beat. Martha Stewart knows her stuff. The cookies in my pictures were the few that came out nicely. The rest were not-quite-circles but still delicious.


    Thank you so much Nikki! I'll put it up as soon as I get some free time. :D

    Hi Mausi, These are perfect for any citrus lovers! I think your husband (and you) would really enjoy these cookies.

    Bob, How could I forget to add some sort of Simpsons reference!? The show is subtle in it's brilliance. :D

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  7. Those look lovely and delicate, Valerie! And I bet the key lime curd gives them a lovely kick!

    Last time I had jury duty, they couldn't wait to get rid of me. Three times I went in and three times they excused me. I figured I looked too normal or something. :)

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  8. Aww..jury duty sucks. I hope you don't have to do it. The cookies look delish though. At least you can snack on them while you wait around the courtroom..:)a

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  9. These look so perfect! If I weren't polishing off a bowl of ice cream in the name of research, I'd get off the couch and make some! My fingers are crossed that you don't get jury duty! Maybe make a crazy, 'I haven't eaten anything sweet in a week' face?

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  10. Yay! After stalking the web site all day, I found out that I don't have to go in at all tomorrow. *wah wah wah* to groups 1,2 & 4.

    Barbara, You're lucky. For some reason I'm almost always the one that gets pulled aside on overseas flights.

    Msmeanie, I was intending on bringing these as possible bribes. If that didn't work, plan B came in a flask.

    Mary, that is a good idea! I would have used that if the Liz Lemon trick of dressing up as Princess Leia didn't work.

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  11. Ohhh, I can almost taste these, Valerie! I used to make something like this when I was a girl and I clean forgot about them until you posted your lovely cookies. :-) Thanks for the walk down memory lane. :-)

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  12. Congratulations on being saved from serving jury duty. These sound fabulous, bookmarked!

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  13. i love key lime cookies. yum!

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  14. Love this idea!!! Will definitely try this recipe!

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Thanks for visiting, and for taking the time to read through my ramblings!
If you have a recipe comment or question, I'd love to hear from you.

Happy Baking!
♥ Valerie

 

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