My sister and 3 year old niece came for a visit last week while my husband was out of town for work. Over the holidays my little niece discovered her love of chocolate, so what better treat to make for their visit than Cocoa Sablés!
Cocoa Sablés are a simple cookie made from flour, cocoa, butter, and sugar, and flavored with salt and vanilla. I was surprised to see there was no egg in these cookies. I left out the optional chopped chocolate since I was serving these to young children.
I was a little concerned when I dumped out my cookie dough to roll it. It was all crumbly and dry.
I had to press it down with my hands, but it came together OK. I probably could have added a touch of water.
I love recipes like this, where the rolls of cookie dough are refrigerated or frozen, to be cut off and baked as needed. I made half the cookies last week and half this week.
Most of my cookies were rolled in in sparkly sugar for decoration, but I left a few plain and sprinkled them with a touch of grey sea salt (thanks to my sister for giving me that idea!). Both were good.
These are delicious cookies with a lovely texture. The girls (and their moms!) liked them a lot. My husband was surprised that they weren’t very sweet, but he liked them because they are chocolate. I accidentally left them unattended for a few minutes, and my daughter stole a few.
Cocoa Sablés are this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe.
From Scratch 
I love your cookies, Karen. So sparkly! The grey salt was an inspired addition. I did add the extra bittersweet chocolate, and they were not too sweet – definitely a treat for grownups!
Ooooh! I love the idea of the salt, wish I thought of that! Your cookies look beautiful! I agree that these cookies are a grown up treat! Have a great weekend!
They look lovely and I am sure the sea salt added just the right “extra something” that these needed!
These are the kind of recipes which make me wish that Dorie did process pictures in her book. Or at least a picture of the dough, because I never know if I have done it right, overdone it or underdone it. My dough looked slightly moister than yours, but still crumbly. But my cookies were a little bland so I maybe that means that your dough was just right.
Oooh, these are so pretty with your sparkly sugar…beautifully done!
Beautifully perfect! I would have LOVED the ones with salt. I will make them that way next time.
Your sables look just perfect, Karen! What a great job. And you tried them with salt which I think would taste wonderful. Great post and I am glad you had a good visit with your sister and niece.
Your sister’s idea is perfect. Grey salt on top. I’ll do that with some of the leftover rolls I’ve got in the freezer. Did your niece help you out with the cookies? What a nice treat for your visitors.
If I make these again I will definitely do the salt on top. I love that idea!
Your sablés are beautiful with the sugar. Glad you did the process pictures so others could see how crumbly the dough was. I had a terrible time getting it formed into a log.