Peanut Brownie Sables

When I choose which cookies to bake each week, I typically look online for ideas, or look at recipes that I have pinned. I have a lot of great cookbooks, but I just don’t think to pick cookies out of there for some reason. Last year for my birthday I got Dorie’s Cookies, and I have only made two recipes out of there! It’s a shame since there are so many good recipes to try. This week I decided that I was going to pick something out of the book and stick with it and bake it!

I chose these Peanut Brownie Sables, which is a combination of two very different things. Sables are a very refined elegant French cookie. Chocolate and peanut is a very American combination. This recipe resembles that dichotomy as well, as you make a sable dough, then a brownie dough, and mix them together. It seems like there would be a way to make this all at once, but I decided to just roll with it. You don’t have to clean the mixing bowl between making the two doughs, so that helps.

The original recipe called for natural peanut butter, but since it was only 2 tablespoons I figured that the Jif I had on hand would do. (It did.) I used dark chocolate chunks for the bittersweet chocolate. My chunks weren’t exactly “finely chopped” but again, it worked just fine. Your mixer will get a bit of a workout mixing the two doughs together! This recipe made about 3 dozen smallish cookies. They aren’t the prettiest things, but they are very fudgy! Perhaps they could have baked another minute, but I think I like them a little bit gooey.

Peanut Brownie Sables

1 cup flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

7 tablespoons butter, room temperature

2 tablespoons peanut butter

½ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

2 egg yolks, room temperature

¾ cup salted peanuts

2/3 cup flour

¼ cup cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup packed brown sugar

4 tablespoons butter, cold, cut into 16 pieces

1 egg, beaten

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Sable dough: In a small bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and peanut butter on medium until smooth. Add the sugar and salt and beat again on medium for 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure that each yolk is incorporated before adding another. Add the flour mixture and turn the mixer on and off a few times to begin mixing. Mix on low until the dough comes together. Add the peanuts and stir on low to combine. Transfer this dough to a piece of parchment paper.

Brownie dough: in the same mixer bowl, no need to wash it, combine the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Stir on low to combine. Add the brown sugar and mix on low to combine. Add the butter pieces and mix on low until the mixture is crumbly. Add in the beaten egg and mix on low until the dough comes together. Add the chopped chocolate and stir to incorporate.

Add the sable dough to the brownie dough and stir until the dough is uniform.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets with a medium-sized cookie scoop. Flatten the dough slightly with a drinking glass or the palm of your hand.

Bake for 10 minutes. The cookies will be set but soft in the middle, and dull. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Recipe from Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan