Friday, April 5, 2013

Pierre Hermés olive sablé

A novel use for an Easter egg ~ 

Per Nana ~
A very interesting recipe and simple to prepare.
When I noticed  that the recipe called for potato starch, only 6 tbsp,
 I thought why can't I just use more flour? I had no idea what I could 
possibly use it for after making this recipe, plus I  havso many herbs, 
spices, etc. left from other recipes.  However, I checked out the super
 market and when I read that it was used for gravies and had  many 
other uses, I decided not to be so cheap and purchased it.  To make it
 even more economical I would share some with Tricia. 
The recipe called for oil cured olives so I used "Greek olives", as they
 are called in New York.  They have just the right amount of salt and I do 
think it went well in this recipe. I  used  Pompeian olive oil, not sure if it is 
considered a fruity oil, but it was a better choice than my garlic-infused 
olive oil. The dough came together pretty well, and after refrigerating
 overnight, the dough was easy to slice. I had divided the dough into three 
rolls and planned to only bake one now and freeze the rest.  However, 
once I tasted the first sablé - I baked the whole batch and haven't 
stopped eating them since. All in all, this was a tasty little treat that
 Hubby and I enjoyed it with a glass of wine. 
I would like to make a note  regarding the MARTHA WRAP- the foil 
backed parchment paper. This is the first time that I have used it and
 found that for baking cookies or the above recipe, that the corners curled
 up in the process.  I only used it for the first tray of sablés, then switched
 to regular parchment paper which lasted through 3 more bakings.
I'm not sure if this was intended for baking cookies, I know it only
 mentioned being used for cooking  en papillote on the box.  I wonder
 if anyone else has used this and had the same problem ?


Per Tricia~
Note the tupperware of ingredients presented to me by Nana.
 Impossibly, I still almost managed to mess this easy recipe up.
First, I completely forgot to actually add the olives as I pondered
 how silky my dough was. P&Q comments showed folks having issues
 of dry, crumbly dough - so of course I figured I had messed up the
 dough  when mine was not dry. After making the logs I realized my
 error, put them back into the bowl and tossed in Nana's adorable
 little container of olives. Which had not been chopped.
 Since she basically did my "mise en place"- I thought they were
 chopped. So I then picked them back out of the dough and chopped them. 
At this point my teenager had to leave the room because he was fearing
 the downward spiral of my mood (or perhaps he could not stand
 watching his Mother's continued failure......)
Aside from user error, the recipe was quite easy. The results were
 good but they missed the mark for my family. The olives were too 
subtle and we just didn't get that perfect balance between sweet and 
savory. The final verdict is that for a cocktail hour we would not 
repeat these when compared to Gougeres or Gerard's Mustard Tart
 or Batons- found elsewhere in the book.
Kudos to our admins for finding a recipe calling for the yolk of a hard-
boiled egg at Easter time - when we had lots of colored eggs to use up !

15 comments:

  1. Well I'd like Nana's tupperware to show up in my house! I think that we will be making egg salad with our left over eggs. Not a keeper.

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  2. I think I need a Nana :-)

    I should probably not admit this, but I don't think I ever dyed Easter eggs with my girls. They probably hold that against me - I try to avoid the subject when it comes up...

    Hope you had a great holiday.

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  3. Very nice, you two! I missed making these this week but am not a huge fan of olives so am not too sad about it. LOL! Have a wonderful weekend.

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  4. These things are so irresistible - I keep going back to the kitchen for more! Both of you made some really great looking sables!

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  5. Nana: I think your black olive sablés look wonderful, they have a nice color and lots of delicious looking specks of black oil cured olives. The big glass jar is the perfect place to keep them delicious - I often use glass jars too for my cookies, savory and sweet.

    Tricia: loved reading your description about the trials of baking these sablés. And they turned out perfect! As far as the sablés are concerned, we (kids included) really enjoyed them tremendously and I actually liked them much better than the seaweed sablés that we made a while back. And I really enjoyed the picture of your "mise en place" as provided for by Nana!

    Wishing both of you a wonderful weekend!

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  6. I so agree with you Nana…I just couldn’t leave these alone! I thought they were a lovely consistency and so delicious! Thanks for the tip on the Martha Wrap.
    Both of your sablés look wonderful…sorry these were not a hit for you and your family, Tricia. I used a Tahitian Lime olive oil in mine, it added such a wonderful lime flavor.
    Have a great weekend, ladies!!

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  7. Tasty looking cookies and colored eggs! Plus, I've had that problem with Martha double wrap before. I ended up just using it as a foil wrap as opposed to baking.

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  8. To have half the recipe appear already prepared at my door, now that it nice. I couldn´t stop eating them either! I used regular olives and olive oil from the supermarket and found them amazing. Have a great weekend both of you!

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  9. Ha Ha! The admins got lucky. It was completely random that this recipe was scheduled to use up your Easter eggs!
    Nana, you take such good care of Tricia. I love that you delivered the ingredients, ready to roll. I'm with Nana on these. I have two extra rolls in the fridge that were bound for the freezer, but I will likely be baking over the weekend because the first roll is nearly gone. Have a great weekend!

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  10. Sorry they missed the mark for half the team! I enjoyed them, but hubby took a pass :) Have a great weekend~

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  11. I love the way you two look after each other - a perfect mother/daughter team. Nana, your pile of sablés looks mouthwatering! Tricia, I think your omission of the olives was telling you something...

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  12. You two are amazing :) I wish my mum was closer so we could bake and cook with Dorie together too! I agree these missed the mark and the olive flavour was too subtle :(

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  13. I'm with you Nana! We couldn't stop eating these and they are perfect with a glass of wine. Luckily I put some in the freezer so we didn't eat them all!

    Tricia, I came very close to forgetting the olives. I was about to divide the dough when I noticed a bowl of chopped olives on the counter!

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  14. Nana, kudos to your for helping Teresa with her Mise en Place. I also look in my cupboards and see all these weird and unusual spices and flours and flavorings and have to figure out how to use them more. I lugged them all to Colorado, doubling their cost to me, so hopefully I will find uses for them all. And, not using garlic-infused olive oil was a great call. And, Teresa, there may have been a moment with the "whole" olives in the shortbread pastry that I would just have called it a night. Bravo to you for soldiering on. Things like that happen to me all the time. Liz just had a mishap with her apple pie. I love it when I realize I am not the Lone Ranger in kitchen errors.

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  15. What a cute post. Nana - I'm glad you enjoyed making these and I felt the same way you did about the potato starch and so I subbed cornstarch instead. I have never used Martha's wrap in place of parchment paper for cookies - I think it is more of a replacement for foil. Tricia - sorry these weren't a hit with you, but if it hadn't been for the thyme in my oils I probably would have felt the same as you did because the taste of the olives was very subtle.

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