Chocolate and Vanilla Holiday Sablés: Festive Cookie Recipe

For the vanilla dough:

• 112 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 50 g granulated sugar
• 15 g confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 136 g all-purpose flour

For the chocolate dough:

• 130 g all-purpose flour
• 53 g dutch-process cocoa powder
• 112 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 50 g granulated sugar
• 20 g confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

To finish:

• sanding sugar or sparkling sugar

Make the vanilla dough:

1. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, confectioners’ sugar, and sea salt until smooth.

2. Scrape down the bowl, add the egg yolk, and beat until combined. Mix in the vanilla extract and scrape down the bowl again.

3. Add the flour and mix on low speed until almost incorporated. Finish folding in the remaining flour with a sturdy spatula or wooden spoon.

4. Turn the dough onto a sheet of parchment, cover with a second sheet, and roll to about 1/4-inch thickness. Place the covered dough on a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (or freeze for 1 hour).

Make the chocolate dough:

1. Wipe out any leftover vanilla dough from the mixing bowl.

2. Sift together the flour and cocoa powder into a medium bowl.

3. Cream the butter, granulated sugar, confectioners’ sugar, and salt in the large mixing bowl until smooth.

4. Scrape down the bowl, add the egg yolk, mix until combined, then stir in the vanilla extract.

5. Add the sifted flour and cocoa and mix on low speed until almost incorporated. Finish folding with a spatula to incorporate any remaining dry bits.

6. Roll the chocolate dough between parchment sheets to about 1/4-inch thick. Transfer to the refrigerator or freezer to chill; you can stack it on top of the vanilla dough while chilling.

Prepare the pan(s) and preheat the oven:

1. Grease your muffin pan(s). Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Cut out the cookies:

1. After chilling, remove the vanilla dough and peel off the top parchment. Use a larger round cutter to cut the outer cookie, then a smaller cutter to cut a shape from the center while the cookie remains on the parchment. Lift the outer ring and the cut-out shape with an offset spatula and transfer them to a fresh parchment-lined baking sheet. If desired, sprinkle with sanding sugar and press gently to adhere. Return the baking sheet to the freezer. Gather scraps, re-roll between parchment to 1/4-inch thickness, and re-chill.

2. Repeat with the chocolate dough. Place chocolate and vanilla cut pieces on the same or separate parchment-lined sheets and freeze for at least 15 minutes.

Assemble the cookies and bake them:

1. Once the shapes are well chilled, fit the vanilla cutouts into the chocolate rings and the chocolate cutouts into the vanilla rings so each cookie has a contrasting center.

2. Place assembled cookies into the greased muffin pan cups. If you only have one muffin tin, bake in batches and mix chocolate and vanilla cookies across the pan. Keep extra assembled cookies frozen until ready to bake.

3. Bake for 14–20 minutes, until the edges of the vanilla rounds just begin to turn golden. Baking time varies with oven, cookie thickness, and diameter. Let the cookies cool in the pans 5–10 minutes, then carefully release them with an offset spatula or small knife and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Re-grease pans if needed and bake remaining assembled cookies.

Cut out, assemble, and bake more cookies with the extra dough:

1. As batches bake, use the chilled scraps to cut and assemble more cookies. There is typically slightly more chocolate dough than vanilla, so your final few cookies may be plain chocolate sablés.

2. Store baked, cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days.