Matcha Sablè Cookies
By Saiba Haque
With a decadently rich matcha brigadiero filling.
And because i just can’t help myself but delve into R&D mode whenever I have that bit of free time, A few recipe development testing in my kitchen has proven successful a few weeks ago as it has optimistically resulted in this delicate and indulgent beauty.
I knew what I wanted before fully getting into this. I wanted a rich an indulgent filling to sandwich between two delicately buttery biscuits, without making it overwhelmingly sweet and refusing to compromise on the strong Matcha flavour that I oh-so-adore.
Now I absolutely love the fudgey goodness that Brigadiero offers in this sordid, wretched, abysmal world. I ate condensed milk by the spoonful growing up and learning that it can be heated until thickened along with mixing in cocoa, was the way to my heart. I have been partial to Brigadieros all my life, whether eaten on its own or by making it into a frosting for chocolate cakes, the Brazilian treat made its way to my childhood kitchen long before I learned about the soulful intricacies of the cuisine.
And so of course the next natural conclusion for me was “what if Brigadiero, but matcha.”
Sure you can just make a white chocolate ganache with matcha and call it a day, but this is so much more fun!
I was only fortunate enough to taste matcha after I started living in the UK a decade ago. Sure it wasn’t as overwhelmingly popular those days but I was enthusiastic on trying new things. And boy did it do me good.
The base of a french butter cookie seemed like a good canvas to project my vision into. And so without much hesitation on these components I carried on.
Hence, so I felt heavily inclined to marry the sweet (and not-too-sweet) tooth of not two, but three distinctly different cultural cuisine together, which made way to fusion different culinary techniques and ingredients to their own merits resulting in a dessert/snack that, to be completely honest, just felt right. And so I got to work!
The biscuit preparation is similar to that of shortbread with a reverse-creaming method where you massage all the mixed up dry ingredients straight with the butter. I found it easy to use my clean hands to do this as the natural warmth helps in this process. This must be continued until there is no big blobs of cubed butter left about and the dough resembles that of wet/damp sand. Upon which, Vanilla extract and an egg yolk is added into this dough and mixed in until it’s just about incorporated.
The dough, now being very green and even more cohesive is rolled into a long log, wrapped with baking paper to resemble a Christmas cracker, and then is set to chill overnight ideally or at least for 2 hours. The chilled dough is cut with a hot knife to make thin cookies (approx 0.5cm per slice) and placed on a tray with baking paper. Careful not to place them too close to each other. I also only cut as much dough as I need for the batch and wrap the rest back up and back it goes in the freezer. To be baked for 12-15 minutes in 180’F, and it is absolutely crucial that it is cooled fully after baking.
For the Matcha Brigadiero filling, all ingredients are heated together in a saucepan on high heat and whisked constantly to avoid burning. (Note: You can add lesser matcha if you prefer a more subtle taste) This ordeal carries on for at least 5 minutes until thick enough to leave a trial of nothingness when you run your maryse/spatula through. Don’t lick the spatula until it’s all spread out on a baking paper to cool in room temperature, I can assure you it will be melted-candy hot! To be kept aside until cooled and thickened fully.
So long as you contents are cooled thoroughly before assembly, and given that you didn’t make the biscuits too thin, I can promise you your biscuits will not crack.
Ingredients
For Biscuits:
274g flour
15g cornstarch
100g icing sugar
70gcastet sugar
7g ceremonial grade matcha
200g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk (large)
For Matha Brigadiero:
200g condensed milk
20gbutter
5-7g ceremonial grade matcha
180’C 12 min
What Matcha treat is your absolute favourite? Let us know!
