by Ski Holidays
We recently returned from our annual family retreat to Grindelwald, a small but popular ski resort in the Swiss alps. We have been going there since our son was a mere 1 month old baby, so it was somewhat awakening to accept that, this year, he attended ski school for the first time.
Not only did he exceed all of our expectations at being able to focus and participate willingly during his morning lessons, it turns out that he is a bit of a natural at skiing too. Wow. My little baby boy can now ski. He can already speak French and Swiss German better than me, and soon he will be zooming down the black slopes, leaving me behind in the dust!
Grindelwald in Winter
Here are some photos from our recent stay in Grindelwald.
Chocolate Chip Sablé Cookies
Each afternoon after we picked up our son from his ski lesson, we would stop by the local bakery for an afternoon tea treat. He has always loved their giant chocolate chip sablé, and this year was no exception. It’s so funny to see the children eat these giant cookies – they are almost the size of their faces!
Once we arrived back home in Zurich, we didn’t have to wait very long before our son started requesting his usual chocolate chip cookie for afternoon tea. So like any proud mother, I have only been too happy to indulge him.
Sablé Cookie Recipe
A sablé cookie is a French shortbread cookie, and the sablé recipe below is based on one given to me by my husband’s great-aunt.
Like most French cookies, this one is rich in butter, but it is significanly less sweet than, say, most American-style cookies.
After receiving many messages and comments from readers complaining that these cookies were not sweet enough, I have doubled the amount of sugar in the recipe below compared to what my husband’s great aunt uses. She shook her head in disapproval when she found out, although I was not brave enough to point out to her that she serves her sablé cookies with a pot of jam on the side … 😉
The original recipe for these sablé cookies only has 50 g (4 tablespoons) of sugar which, I think, makes perfectly sweet and buttery cookies, especially if you are adding chocolate chips or serving jam on the side. But I concede that most people are used to eating much sweeter cookies, which is why I have doubled the sugar content below, but you can adjust the quantity as you wish.
My son was super-excited to come home this afternoon to a plate of chocolate chip sablé cookies still warm from the oven. And I feel better just knowing that our cookie jar is, once again, full to the brim.
Tips For Making Sablé Cookies
- Roll out the dough and then chill. This will make it easier to stamp out the cookies later. Also, the cookies turn out best when the dough is still cold as they go into the oven.
- Cut out any shapes. Use any size cookie cutter you like, and in any shape. Keep an eye on the baking time, as you want to bake them until they are just lightly golden.
- Alternatively, roll the dough into a log. If you don’t want to stamp out shapes from the cookie dough, roll the dough instead into a log with about 5-6 cm diameter. Once chilled, cut thick slices from the log to form each cookie. You can also freeze the cookie dough as a log.
Chocolate Chip Sablé Cookies
Ingredients
- 350 g (12 oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 110 g (½ cup) caster sugar, (superfine sugar), or more to taste
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 600 g (4 cups) plain flour, (all-purpose flour)
- 60 ml (¼ cup) cold water
- 160 g (6 oz) dark chocolate chips
Instructions
To Make the Cookie Dough
- Place the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Using the flat paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg yolks, vanilla extract and salt.
- Add a few tablespoons of the flour mixture at a time to the bowl and incorporate on slow speed.
- Once all of the flour has been added, add a bit of the cold water (you may not need all of it) and mix until everything comes together into a soft ball.
- Add the chocolate chips and incorporate this into the dough.
- Place the dough between two sheets of baking paper and roll until the mixture is about 1 cm thick.
- Place the rolled out dough in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.
To Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (without fan).
- Use a large round cookie cutter to cut out shapes from the dough and transfer them to a baking sheet lined with baking paper. I used an 8 cm (3 inch) round cookie cutter, but you can make the cookies any size you like.
- Bake the cookies for about 15-20 minutes, or until they are lightly golden.
- Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Kitchen Notes
- SUGAR CONTENT
This recipe comes from my husband’s great-aunt. Her recipe contains 50 g (4 tablespoons) of sugar, and the cookies are less sweet than American-style cookies. I have doubled the quantity of sugar in my recipe above, but you can adjust the sugar quantity as you wish. - STORAGE TIPS
The cookies keep well in an air-tight container for several days. - OVEN TEMPERATURES
All recipes on this website state temperatures for a regular oven (i.e. a conventional oven without fan). If you have a convection oven with a fan, please consult the manufacturer’s handbook on how to adjust the temperature and baking time accordingly. - CONVERSIONS
To convert from cups to grams, and vice-versa, please see this handy Conversion Chart for Basic Ingredients.
Anything with the word giant in the title gets my vote.
Those scenery photos are just stunning.
Thanks, Dannii! You can then see why we love going to Grindelwald each year 🙂
That looks and sounds like it was a wonderful family trip! …and those cookies, yum!! Perfect afternoon snack indeed!
Thanks, Sarah. We always enjoy our trip to Grindelwald, and this year especially!
fun to read this post! giant chocolate chip piqued my interest, but I hadn’t seen the term “sable” before. And I went hiking in Grindewald many years back, fun to see your pics of the place in the winter!
Oh, I’ve never been to Grindelwald in summer! We keep hearing that it’s a beautiful place to hike in summer, so we ought to do that this year. A “sablé” is a French shortbread cookie which is fairly popular in Switzerland. These cookies are essentially large sablé with chocolate chips added 🙂
These biscuits would go down a treat with the kids. Bookmarked to make later
Oh I hope you and kids will enjoy the recipe!
You had me at giant chocolate chip, but you got me completely over the line with SABLE!!!
Your photos of Grindelwald are stunning and, what a proud mum you are! How fantastic for you son on his first inclusion in ski school and to be blitzing it!!
Thanks, Sara 🙂 We weren’t sure how it was going to work out with the ski school, but our son was a true champion from day one. I’m so used to having to negotiate with him to get him to do most things, so this was a complete surprise!
Great cookies! and great vacation! – we are going to be enjoying a batch of these:)
I hope you will enjoy the recipe!
Those photos are something of fairy tales! I cannot imagine snow like that right now when our nights are stifling hot 🙂 will have to give these a go when it’s cool enough to turn the oven on again and dream of snowy mountains like these while baking! Thanks for sharing x
I’ve always been a winter person, so Switzerland definitely suits me 😉 I can’t imagine living again in Australia where it would get up to 40°C in summer. If we ever move back to Australia, it might have to be to Tasmania!
I much prefer the cold too… I’ve had many many many thoughts (& dreams) about moving to Tasmania to escape Sydney’s heat this summer!
I once travelled to Tasmania briefly for work and was lucky to visit some friends who were living there at the time. They showed me around and I just found the area to be stunning. The city feels so different to the rest of Australia, albeit a bit isolated. I remember the Sydney heat well … I don’t miss the humidity one bit! 😉
Your ski vacation looks like heaven! Must be amazing to live so close to the Alps 🙂
I pinch myself everyday 🙂
grindelwald looks gorgeous! all that snow ? i do have to admit at first i thought you were talking about grindelwald, the evil wizard pre-voldemort in harry potter ?
LOL! I’m also a Harry Potter fan but I didn’t know that was his name – just looked it up now! It’s not a bad name to have, especially since it’s linked to such a beautiful part of Switzerland 🙂
Awww. . .the kiddos sure do grow up fast, don’t they? Such beautiful photos of Grindelwald. They make me want to drop everything & run there. . .especially if it involves a giant sable. They look so tasty and would be the perfect partner to my walnut tea.
They say that the days are long, but the years are short … that is so true when you have children! Cookies and a hot cup of tea sound just perfect to me right now 🙂
Your pictures from the moutains are simply breathtaking! And your cookies are probably a lovely snack to serve with a cup of tea to observe the summits from this cute wood cabin 🙂
Thank you! We always enjoy being in the mountains and it’s a rare opportunity when I can capture such photos with so much fresh snow. I think we will always associate Grindelwald with giant chocolate chip cookies, so it’s been nice to recreate them at home 🙂
Thanh, your ski vacation looks amazing! I would gladly trade my beaches for the snow for a few days! Glad to see you making good on your New Year’s resolutions!
Thanks, Vy! I hope you and your family had a wonderful time in Hawaii. I’ve always dreamt of visiting Hawaii, so hopefully we will make it there one day! As for the blog, it’s hard work trying to meet my goals, but at least it’s fun to work on the blog 🙂
Great recipe! We made them into smaller cookies and used dark chocolate chunks. Definitely a keeper!
I have to try this! Looks amazing! Yum!
These are so good. My youngest doesn’t have a sweet tooth and can be picky about cookies, these she absolutely adores! They will be a regular in our house.
That’s great to hear! My children love making and eating these cookies. Lately, we have been making them in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Such an easy recipe to work with. So glad that your daughter loves them too!
Merci beaucoup, Thanh, for all your lovely recipes. I am a huge fan of European baking and yours is one blog I keep coming back to. Unfortunately, for cultural reasons,we don’t eat eggs at home and thus I tend to convert all recipes to make them eggless. Though I could substitute whole eggs successfully in plenty of recipes, I still am in s fix when it comes to only the yolk. I have made Sablé a few times in the past but I really want to try your version too.
Keep writing and inspiring!
I miss travel and Europe ever since the onset of the pandemic but your blog posts keep me connected.
Hi Smita,
Thank you for your lovely message 🙂 I miss travel too! Even though our family live next door in France, it’s just not a good idea to travel at the moment. I hope things will start to look brighter in a few months 🙂
I keep planning to publish just a plain sablé recipe, but it is essentially this recipe minus the chocolate. I hope you will find a suitable replacement for egg yolk. My guess is this recipe uses just egg yolks for richness, as well as to keep the dough drier than if you were to also add the whole eggs. Perhaps use your usual egg substitute, and just add enough until the mixture comes together into a dough? Please let me know how you get on 🙂 Stay safe and take care!