Laksa Sablés

There was a period of time, about 5 years ago, when my sil and me were obsessed with making sablés. Thankfully our families were also totally in love with them. The buttery goodness, the crumbly, sand-like texture; we couldn't get enough of it. These delicate, French butter cookies were delicious plain, but it wasn't long before we started experimenting with different flavours. Out of which, our favourite are the Matcha sablés and French Earl Grey sablés.

Since I've always love sweet and savoury combinations, I started dabbling with various, "weird and quirky" flavours. Hae bee hiam (spicy dried shrimp) sablé was one of them, created for Chinese New Year back then. I thought it tastes unique and funky in a good way, but it received mixed reviews from families and friends. Thereafter, I wanted to make laksa-flavoured ones, way before Cookie Museum came up with theirs, but I'm always too lazy to prepare the laksa paste from scratch. So you know... eventually I dismissed the idea.

That's how when I finally got the chance to work with premix laksa paste, Laksa Sablé was the first thing that popped into my mind!

Laksa Sablés (makes about 60-70 5cm fluted rounds)

250g     Butter, unsalted
200g     Icing sugar
100g     Premix Laksa Paste
     1     Egg
500g     Plain flour
  50g     Dried shrimp, blitzed
    7g     Chopped Laksa leaves

Optional
     1     Egg
1 tbsp   Water
small handful of Sakura Ebi

Preheat oven to 175°C
1. Using a paddle attachment, cream butter and icing sugar till mixture is soft and creamy.

2. Add in the premix laksa paste, mix till combine before adding the egg and mix till mixture is homogeneous.

3. Stir the blitzed dried shrimp and chopped laksa leaves through the plain flour and mix evenly.

4. Add the flour mixture to the laksa butter mixture in a few additions and mix till the dough comes together.

5. Wrap the dough with cling wrap and chill in refrigerator for at least 30mins.

6. On a lightly flour surface, roll out dough to a thickness of about 4mm. Using a 5cm fluted round cookie cutter or other desired shapes, punch out dough and lay them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Optional
7. Beat together the egg and water to form an egg wash and strain it. Lightly brush the sablés with egg wash and place a few sakura ebi on top.

8. Bake 16-20mins, turning halfway, till sablés has browned slightly. Cool completely on wired rack before storing in airtight container.

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Thoughts: These sablés tasted really good! It wasn't too huge of a surprise for me since I so love the hae bee hiam sablés back then. The main difference is the lovely aromatics that perfumes the sablés. For that, do choose a good premix and fresh laksa leaves. 

Although there are still some people who finds it weird, u know... laksa flavour in a cookie... a sweet, savoury and spicy cookie... but it works for me, and I simply love it! 

Thanks to our hot and humid climate, I would suggest dividing the dough into a few portions and work with a small amount each time while keeping the remaining chilled. The dough softens pretty fast and this will help keep the dough manageable. Regardless, I still run into the issue of overworking the dough on the subsequent roll outs. I guess this is more or less inevitable if I want to cut out the traditional fluted sablé shape.

My egg wash didn't turn out as pretty as they should be, and the harsh brush marks can be clearly seen in this photo. Perhaps using a non-silicone brush will do the trick next time. Let me know if doing that work out for you guys, otherwise you can leave it out too.

The sablés will last up to a week in an airtight container while the raw dough can keep for as long as 3 months in the freezer.

Try these Laksa sablés and share with us your yummy creations on facebook or tag @whattobaketoday on instagram! 

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