Chocolate and Vanilla Holiday Sablés Recipe for Festive Cookies

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 (optional)

Make the vanilla dough:

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, confectioners’ sugar, and sea salt with an electric mixer until smooth.
2. Scrape the bowl, add the egg yolk, and beat until combined. Mix in the vanilla extract and scrape the bowl again.
3. Add the flour and mix on low speed until almost incorporated. Turn off the mixer and finish folding the flour in with a spatula or wooden spoon.
4. Turn the dough onto a sheet of parchment, cover with another parchment sheet, and roll to about 1/4-inch thickness. Place the covered dough on a baking sheet and chill in the refrigerator at least 2 hours or freeze for 1 hour.

Make the chocolate dough:

1. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together into a medium bowl.
2. In a clean mixing bowl, cream the butter, granulated sugar, confectioners’ sugar, and sea salt until smooth.
3. Scrape the bowl, add the egg yolk, mix until combined, then stir in the vanilla extract.
4. Add the sifted flour and cocoa and mix on low until mostly incorporated. Finish folding in any remaining dry bits by hand.
5. Roll the chocolate dough between two sheets of parchment to about 1/4-inch thickness. Chill on a baking sheet in the refrigerator or freezer; you can stack it on the vanilla dough while chilling.

Prepare the pans and preheat the oven:

1. Grease a muffin pan (or pans) and preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Cut out the cookies:

1. Remove the top parchment from the chilled vanilla dough. Use a larger round cutter to cut outer cookies, then use a smaller cutter to cut a shape from the center of each round. Lift the outer rings and the cut-out shapes with an offset spatula and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. If you like, sprinkle sanding sugar on the outer rings or cut-outs and press gently to adhere. Freeze the tray of cut shapes for at least 15 minutes. Gather scraps, reroll between parchment to 1/4-inch thickness, and re-chill.
2. Repeat the same cutting process with the chocolate dough. Place chocolate shapes on the same or a separate baking sheet and freeze along with the vanilla shapes for at least 15 minutes.

Assemble and bake:

1. Once the shapes have chilled, swap the centers: fit vanilla cut-out shapes into the chocolate rings and chocolate cut-outs into the vanilla rings.
2. Place assembled cookies in the greased muffin pan cavities. If you have just one 12-cup tin, bake in batches and include a mix of chocolate and vanilla cookies in each batch. Return unused assembled cookies to the freezer while you bake.
3. Bake for 14–20 minutes, until the edges of the vanilla rounds just begin to turn golden. Baking time varies with oven and cookie thickness. Let cookies cool in the muffin pan 5–10 minutes, then release with an offset spatula and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Re-grease the pan if needed and repeat with remaining assembled cookies.

Finish and store:

1. While batches bake, cut and assemble more cookies from rolled scraps. You’ll likely have slightly more chocolate dough, so the last few cookies may be plain chocolate sablés.
2. When cool, store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days.