Vegetarian 
Market Produce
Lemons & Limes (Citrons/Citrons vert)
Honey lemon sablé biscuits – a quick and easy cookie recipe that’s best for a sore throat with a cup of ginger rooibos tea at teatime.
Honey Lemon Sablé Biscuits were just asking to be baked. It was a sign: Corsican lemons poking out from an oversized basket, stuck to their prickly leaves. I filled a large bag and, dreaming at the Monoprix checkout, thought about my favourite lemon and passion fruit meringue tart I could make with them. Corsican hubby would be pleased.
Then Lucie suddenly came down with a virus all last week while Mummy bear tried to calm her scratchy throat and racking cough with hot lemon and honey drinks. Finally when the fever subsided after a few days, it was my turn for the symptoms; then Antoine; like crashing dominoes, we were. The lemons didn’t make it to dessert mode – instead these easy Honey Lemon Sablé Biscuits.
The oversized jar of honey, bought from the market at Apt last summer, was also our best medicine. Miel de Garrigues, or honey from the Mediterranean coastal regions from such typical wild shrubs as lavender, thyme, sage, rosemary was the perfect soothing addition to drinks, yoghurts and to coat our favourite weekend brioche (thank you, freezer!).
Feeling sorry for myself (I’m a typical Aries – I’d hate to live with me), I felt the love circulating via friends with hints on the best remedies on Facebook – thank you! Now I’ve discovered Rooibos, that has really helped.
Luckily I hadn’t lost my appetite. Come teatime this weekend, the end of the honeypot was looking rather concrete and unappetising. With only a few seconds in the microwave, the last of the liquid nectar was just too good to down all in one go, so I found these biscuits on the internet.
I say biscuits with my Scottish accent, my American friends call them cookies, the French call them sablés, so what on earth was I supposed to write as a title? Incidentally, the French refer to them as sablés since as you mix the butter and flour together with your fingertips, it resembles sand (our breadcrumbs reference). Crumbs – isn’t that fascinating? So, honey lemon sablé biscuits they are.
Honey Lemon Sablé Biscuits
Recipe slightly adapted from 750 grammes French website for Petits délices au miel. I reduced the sugar slightly and added a pinch of salt. I used a stronger honey (like mountain honey) which flavours the biscuits beautifully.
Makes about 40 sablés (depending on the size of your cookie cutters) @ 83 Calories each.
I was planning on coating them with a ginger and lemon glaze but after having tried the first ones, I can honestly say they don’t need any fancy toppings. They are delicious and tasty enough on their own. Although don’t forget the tea! Serve with lemon tea – or why not a warming pot of Ginger Rooibos tea?
Honey Lemon Sablé Biscuits
Servings : 40 biscuits
Calories : 83kcal
Description
Quick and easy cookies that are delicious using a strong mountain honey or Acacia honey that are particularly good with a pot of ginger Rooibos tea if you have a cold - or not!
Ingredients
- 250 g / 9oz plain flour
- 60 g / 2.5oz sugar
- 130 g /4.5oz softened butter unsalted/doux
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 zest of 2 lemons unwaxed/organic
- 3 tbsp runny honey Dark mountain honey (strong flavoured)
- 1 good pinch salt fleur de sel
Instructions
- Measure the flour in a large bowl. In the centre, add the sugar, softened butter, lemon zest, honey and salt. Mix all together well with the tips of your fingers until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (or sand - sable - as the French say) then add the egg yolks.
- Alternatively, if you have a stand mixer, mix all the ingredients together for a couple of minutes maximum until well blended together.
- Split the dough into 2, cover with cling film and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan. Remove the dough from the fridge and film and roll out with a rolling pin to about 5mm thickness. Cut the dough using your favourite cookie cutters. Put the biscuits on a baking tray covered with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Leave the cookies to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes (this will make it easier to remove them) then cool on a wire rack.
Notes
I prefer to use a dark, full-flavoured honey, such as a mountain honey, to let the flavour shine through. Please use good quality organic lemons.
Jill Colonna
MadAboutMacarons.com
[…] Honey Lemon Sablé Biscuits […]
Word of warning: ever since I met Jill I have become indeed mad about macarons and Paris! The symptoms are:
1) inevitably drooling over macarons, bought and homemade
2) an irrational need to visit Paris (and everything around it!)
3) obsessing over every new blogpost
Thanks Jill!
Jill, now that I’ve seen your site and recipes, I am over the moon with the comments you left on my site! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are very kind and I love your blog, too! In fact, I would love to make these biscuits with some Meyer lemons which were just given to me by a friend! Will let you know if I do as I have a LOT going on and leaving for a trip in less than 2 weeks; you know how that goes! Ugh! Thanks so much for finding me, so now I’ve found you! 🙂
Thank you for coming to le blog, Christina! Meyer lemons … yes, I keep hearing about them via the blogging world and it’s frustrating that we don’t get them here. You’re so lucky. Good luck on the travels. Looks like we’re off next week to Italy and so best get planning …. restaurants! 🙂
How ill must you be to keep you out of the kitchen Jill? You just can’t stop creating treats and sharing them so thank you for the dedication.
I think Julie was wary of me making things, as she didn’t want to catch anything. But it was the only place I could do something! Thank you x
Mmmm it looks so yummy !!!
I don’t know, Jill, if you already use, but you can find “cédrat” in Corsica. By the way, I don’t know how to say cédrat in english 😉
They use it to make an alcohol over there, called Cédratine. I didn’t get the opportunity to try yet.
Hi Francis – so glad to see you’ve popped in. Thank you! Yes, my husband is from Corsica so we know cedrat (yes, it’s the same in English) well, not to mention Cédratine, the deep yellow liqueur (we finished it recently making Fiadone and wanted to post about this too). I’ve never been able to find cédrats in Paris – pity, as it’s so much powerful to normal lemons (Citrus medica with rough skin). Let’s keep our eyes peeled, shall we? 🙂
Oh how I love sablés, especially those with honey and lemon- just the thing to restore health 🙂
Thanks, Patty and Ann. Any excuse to eat biscuits really ….
So sorry to hear about your gripes (ugh this winter has been the WORST) but glad you are all on the mend. These cookies sound like a solid part of the healing process!
Funny how looking at that Monoprix basket photo brought it all back to me, the smell of Monoprix, the sounds, the food counters, clothes, make up (bought some of my first ever make up there) etc It’s the strangest things that make you homesick for somewhere, don’t you think?
These biccies look delicious, I hope to try them sometime although I can’t quite figure out this rental oven!
Hope you’re all feeling beaucoup mieux!!
You know, Claudine, I wasn’t even going to put in that basket so I’m glad this meant something! I forget to take shots when I’m at the supermarket and don’t look around me enough. Feeling much better today, if still very “woozy” (thank goodness it was only just a passing thing!) – thanks for saying hello and good luck in the rental flat!
Such a lovely use for the dredges of the honey pot 🙂 It’s a good sign that you’re up to baking!
Thanks, Liz. Let’s just say these were easiest to bake (I couldn’t do much else – even my eyes were streaming looking at any screen or book). I don’t know if I could have even attempted your amazing looking chocolate valentine’s creations!
Sorry to hear you were all under the weather. Nothing to beat honey and lemon as a cure and the biscuits look terrific.
As you can see, they were simplest to tackle when feeling under the weather – it wasn’t like making a 3-tiered cake! Merci xo
Glad you’re on the mend Jill. These look so easy and delicious. Made sablés but not with honey or lemon so must try. Ah, Corsican lemons!
Yes, Corsican lemons are great and easier to find here. We don’t get the Meyer lemons I hear so much about in the US and even in Paris, Menton lemons are hard to find.
I bought those same lemons to paint…not knowing they were from corsica!
Pomagranate seeds dIly and no more colds or flu ever. But nobody listens.
Pomegranate, pomegranate, hang on – did you not tell me that once? I’m taking note here now, I promise. Did you hear that everyone? Pomegranate seeds, every day! Thanks, Carol.