Vanilla Bean Sable Cookies | Best Vanilla Cookies Ever

See those tiny dots? Vanilla.

Scraped from vanilla beans. Unbelievably good.

This cookie is sort of a cross between a sugar cookie and a butter cookie. I've heard sable means "sandy" in French. Not sure if it's true because I don't know French, but the description fits the texture of these cookies.

This recipe is by Dorie Greenspan and is featured in the April/May 2012 issue of Fine Cooking. I posted a photo of these on Twitter for Dorie and she responded saying that they were lovely and that she liked the twine. Sigh. Love her. Trying not to be seen as a stalker. Sigh.

Here's the recipe:

Vanilla Bean Sable Cookies

Yield, about 24 cookies.

Ingredients

2 vanilla beans

1/3 C granulated sugar

8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 C powdered sugar

2 large egg yolks

9 ounces (2 cups) unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 C Sparkling/sanding sugar

Instructions

1. Cut the vanilla beans lengthwise and scrape out the pulp. Add the pulp to the granulated sugar and mix with your fingers.
2. In a bowl of a stand mixer, mix the butter until creamy, for about one minute.
3. Add the salt, vanilla sugar, and powdered sugar, and mix for about one minute. 
4. Add one egg yolk and mix for one minute.
5. On low speed, add the flour and mix until just blended.
6. Scrape the dough onto a work surface and knead a few times. 
7. Divide the dough in half and create two nine inch logs. Wrap the logs with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, and up to 3 days. You can also freeze the logs for about 60 days. 
8. Position your oven racks in the top and bottom third of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. 
9. Whisk the remaining egg yolk with a splash of water. 
10. Brush each log with the egg wash and roll each in the sanding/sparkling sugar. 
11. Cut the logs into 1/2 inch slices. Place the slices about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. 
12. Bake the cookies, turning and swapping the sheets about halfway through, for about 18 to 22 minutes, until golden on the edges. 
13. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for about 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks and allow to cool completely. 
14. Store in an airtight container.

Shared with:
Sweet Treats and Swanky Stuff
Sweets for Saturday
Strut Your Stuff Saturday
Weekend Wrap Up
I'm Lovin It