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Ispahan Sablés, Humbled

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's adaptation of Pierre Hermé’s famous Ispahan Macarons. For the sanding sugar, I used the Wholesome Sweeteners brand of organic Demerara—you want big-crystals sugar. Dorie suggests freeze-dried raspberries but I've found a way around that time-consuming process. The recipe makes about 5 dozen cookies.
Prep Time45 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time1 hour 5 minutes
Author: Spice

Ingredients

For the sugar

  • 1/4 cup sanding sugar
  • 1/4 tsp rose water
  • Red liquid food colouring

For the Sablés

  • 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
  • 1 2/3 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup + 3 Tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp rose water
  • 1/4 tsp fleur de sel or your best salt

Instructions

For the sugar

  • Put the sugar into a small zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the rose water and food colouring on top of the sugar, seal and shake, adding more food colouring if necessary.

For the Sablés

  • Put the raspberries into a zipper-locked bag, seal and crush them with a rolling pin until pulverized. Place the raspberries in a small frypan and over medium-high heat, cook for a few minutes ,stirring constantly until the raspberry juice has evaporated. Let cool. You should have 1/2 cup of raspberry purée. Mix the raspberry purée into the flour.
  • Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until it's soft and creamy, about 2 minutes.
  • Add the sugar, rose water and flour de sea and beat for 3 minutes.
  • Add the raspberry/flour mixture. Mix at low speed until the dough forms soft curds.
  • Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll each piece into an 8-inch log.
  • Spread the sugar onto a piece of wax paper and roll the logs in the sugar until they're completely coated.Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
  • To bake, set your oven to 325 F. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Cut the logs into 1/2-inch thick rounds and place on the cookie sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each round. Bake for 20 minutes until the cookies are firm around the edges but the tops are still pale pink. Let them rest for a few minutes before slipping them out of the pans to cool.