Vanilla Sablé Biscuits with a Flower Edge
French butter biscuits like you can't buy anywhere
You absolutely have to try this wonderful vanilla sablé biscuit. These butter sable cookies are made quickly and easily with just a few ingredients, and thanks to the high butter content they turn out especially crumbly and simply irresistible. With edible, dried cornflowers, your French butter pastry gets a unique look. I hope you enjoy baking them!
And once you know the basic recipe: further down you'll find five variations, from chocolate to the savoury apéro version with parmesan.
Ingredients
Decoration
Step by step
Sablé dough
Knead the ingredients by hand
Put all the ingredients together in a large Bowl. It's important that the butter is cold and cut into small cubes. Now knead the ingredients with your hands — over time everything comes together nicely and you get a dough that isn't too warm and can be worked straight away. Tip: You can also make the dough with the Dough hook directly in the food processor.
Bourbon vanilla seeds, 5 g
White flour, 1 kg
Shape into a roll — without flour and smooth with the Cake tin
The finished sablé dough shouldn't be too soft, so that you can shape it into a nice roll WITHOUT flour. If it's too soft or sticky, wrap it in cling film and put it back in the fridge for another 30 minutes; then knead it well and shape it into a roll. Never use flour for rolling — otherwise nothing will stick to the dough roll in the end (neither crystal sugar nor flowers).
Smooth with the Cake tin
Cake tin 43 x 32 cm
Roll in sugar and flowers, chill for 30 minutes
Sprinkle your work surface with crystal sugar and edible cornflower petals or a flower mix. Roll the sablé roll — again using the Cake tin — over the decoration: the flowers and crystal sugar now stick easily to the butter sable cookies. The finished decorated dough roll now needs to go into the fridge for about 30 minutes.
Edible organic blue cornflower petals from Switzerland
Edible organic cornflower petals mix from Switzerland
Edible organic pink cornflower petals from Switzerland
Cake tin 43 x 32 cm
Cutting and baking
Cut into 1-cm slices
After 30 minutes in the fridge, take out the sablé roll and use the Dough divider to mark it into pieces about 1 cm thick. Then cut the roll into individual sablés with a large, straight knife and place them on a Baking tray lined with baking paper.
Dough divider, 5 wheels
Let rest for 30 minutes
If your sablés have any holes or uneven spots, correct them now. Then let the biscuits stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes — this way you get an even nicer baking result in the end. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 170 °C fan.
Baking paper 42 x 33 cm, 25 pieces
Bake until golden
Bake the butter sables at 170 °C fan for about 10–12 minutes until golden. After baking, let them cool and store them in a Cookie tin.
Vanilla sables
Ingredients
Sable dough
Decoration
Preparation
- Dough: Knead cold butter cubes with icing sugar, salt, vanilla and flour by hand.
- Roll: Without flour, shape into a 30 cm roll and smooth it evenly with the cake tin.
- Decoration: Roll the log over granulated sugar and cornflowers, then chill for 30 minutes.
- Cutting: Cut into 1 cm thick slices and place on the baking tray.
- Resting: Let stand for 30 minutes at room temperature, preheat the oven to 170 °C fan.
- Baking: Bake for 10–12 minutes until golden and let cool.
Nutritional values per 100 g
Storage & shelf life
Everything for this recipe
Recommended from our bakery — exactly the sizes the recipe was tested with.
Ingredients
Edible organic blue cornflowers from Switzerland
Edible organic cornflower mix from Switzerland
Edible organic pink cornflowers from Switzerland
Bourbon vanilla seeds, 5 g
White flour, 1 kg
Edible organic flower mix from Switzerland
Accessories
Cake tin 43 x 32 cm
Dough divider, 5 wheels
Baking paper 42 x 33 cm, 25 pieces
Delivery in 1–2 working days · Free shipping from CHF 100
A lovely touch
Not needed for the recipe — but it fits nicely.
Cookie tin Sweet Love, Ø 110 x 130 mm
Tea caddy Bird, 78 x 78 x 110 mm
Cookie tin Ladybird with wings, 180 x 140 x 40 mm
So they turn out perfectly, guaranteed
Many sablé recipes use soft butter and long chilling. We do it the other way round: cold butter and proper kneading give you a dough that is instantly at the right temperature for rolling – you can shape it straight into a log with no waiting time, saving a whole chilling step.
The most important sentence of this recipe: never use flour when rolling. A floured surface won't take on either granulated sugar or petals – and the pretty edge is gone. If the dough sticks, the fridge helps, not the flour.
After cutting, the sablés should rest for another 30 minutes at room temperature. The cut surfaces relax and the biscuits bake more evenly, with a nice smooth surface – the little extra step is worth it.
With the pale sablés, the golden edge tells you when they're done. With the chocolate version you can't see anything — dark dough doesn't visibly get darker. There, set the timer for 10 minutes and go by feel: the biscuits are done when they are firm at the edge and still very slightly soft in the middle. They firm up further on the tray.
Frequently asked questions
Almost always the flour: if the log was shaped on a floured surface, its surface is too dry. Shape the log without flour – the slightly sticky butter surface will then take on sugar and petals all by itself. If need be, wipe the log with a wafer-thin film of water.
Yes – use flowers explicitly declared as edible, such as our organic Swiss cornflowers. They are flavour-neutral and barely lose any colour during baking. Flowers from the florist or garden may have been treated.
Usually the dough was kneaded too long or too much flour was worked in – then the dough develops gluten and becomes tough instead of crumbly. Knead only until the dough comes together, and stick precisely to the amounts: the high butter content does the rest.
The dough is a base that goes along with almost anything. Five variations that work for us:
Chocolate: Replace 20 g of the White flour with 20 g Cocoa powder and add a teaspoon of cream — otherwise the cocoa makes the dough too dry. Roll the edge in granulated sugar or finely chopped couverture.
Lemon: Grate the zest of an organic lemon into the butter and leave out the vanilla. The edge becomes granulated sugar with a little dried lemon zest.
Nut: Swap 30 g White flour for 30 g ground almonds or Pistachios. Instead of sugar, roll the log in finely chopped nuts — this gives an edge that toasts during baking.
Cinnamon: A teaspoon of cinnamon into the flour, and the edge becomes cinnamon sugar (granulated sugar with a scant half-teaspoon of cinnamon).
Savoury for the apéro: Leave out the icing sugar and vanilla entirely, adding instead 50 g finely grated Parmesan and a good pinch of pepper — a parmesan sable. Roll the edge in poppy seeds or sesame. This turns the biscuit into an apéro treat.
Everything else stays the same: 30 minutes' rest in the fridge, 10 to 12 minutes at 170 °C fan.
Print recipe
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Related products
Edible organic cornflower blossoms blue from Switzerland
Cake tray 43 x 32 cm
Edible organic flower mix from Switzerland
White flour, 1 kg
Dough cutter, 5 wheels
Baking paper 42 x 33 cm, 25 pieces
Bourbon vanilla seeds, 5 g
Edible organic cornflower blossom mix from Switzerland
Edible organic cornflower blossoms pink from Switzerland
Tea caddy bird, 78 x 78 x 110 mm
Ladybug cookie tin with wings, 180 x 140 x 40 mm
Sweet Love biscuit tin, Ø 110 x 130 mm
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Comments
-
Butter und Kneten
By: Nic On 2025-07-22Guten Tag
Ich bin gerade am Versuchen zu verstehen, was wichtig beim Herstellen eines Sables-Teiges ist.
Teilweise wird empfohlen weiche Butter zu verwenden und den Teig nur zusammenzufügen und nicht zu kneten. Weshalb habe Sie sich für die Variation kalte Butter und kneten entschieden?
Freundliche Grüsse
NicReplied by: Rebecca Odermatt On 2025-08-11
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voll-tolle Rezepte
By: Heidi Knobel On 2025-05-12Liebes miniSchoggi-Team,
ich möchte Euch ein Kränzlein winden für Eure immer sehr liebevoll bebilderten Rezepte mit sehr anmächeligen, professionellen Fotos! Als Laie lerne ich immer wieder etwas Neues dazu: z.B. wie man mit Hilfe eines Blechs eine schöne Teigrolle bekommt :-)
Ich durfte schon ein paar Kurse besuchen und habe dazu auch Kolleginnen eingeladen. Da ich eher der "herzhafte Typ" bin, werde ich mir bestimmt wieder einmal einen Kurs in diese Richtung leisten.
Bis dahin grüsse ich das ganze Team freundlich
Heidi Knobel
Übrigens sind auch Eure Videos toll und ein Genuss!Replied by: Rebecca Odermatt On 2025-05-14
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