chocolate sable linzer cookies

Oh I am so happy to have a new oven. And I've inaugurated it with this lovely recipe. My favorite Oreo cookie all dressed up, called a sable {such a decadent name}, from Balthazar's no less, and made holiday worthy to boot!

To be honest I had no idea what a sable was, but I saw this recipe at Smitten Kitchen and knew I had to make it. Why, you ask. Because it looks like a homemade wonderfully dark, chocolatey Oreo cookie. Rather than use traditional jam for the center of my linzer cookies, I made a vegan Oreo creme filling, but no need to fill them, these sables taste pretty darned wonderful all on their own.

And last night I was so fortunate to have my husband drive and wait in the car with our sleeping son {yes, I owe him... again}, so that I cold attend this event at PowerHouse Books in Dumbo, where Deb from Smitten Kitchen spoke on a panel and where I offered these cookies at their cookie swap. I scored a bunch of amazing cookies myself. Hopefully she got a chance to try mine out.

Sable Linzer Cookies adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Intensely Chocolate Sables
Makes 24 Linzer cookies

1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder {Deb at Smitten Kitchen said to use only Dutched cocoa, but I threw caution to the wind, and the batter ended up impossible dry and crumbly, as she said it would. I remedied this by adding 1/4 cup more vegan butter which worked out nicely}
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup salted vegan butter {I use Nature Balance, Original}
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt {I probably should have skipped this since there is salt in my butter, but it didn't hurt it any}
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, finely chopped until almost powdery in a food processor
Coarse sugar (turbinato/sugar in the raw or decorative) for sprinkling

1. Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking soda together into a bowl and set aside.

2. Process butter, sugar and salt together in a food processor until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and vanilla, mix until combined, then scraping down sides. Add dry ingredients and grated chocolate together and mix until just combined.

3. Scrape dough onto a plastic baggie and chill it in the frige until just firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. No need to get it fully hard, or it will be harder to roll out. Dough can be refrigerated until needed, up to a two days, or frozen longer, but let it warm up and soften a bit before rolling it out for decreased frustration.

4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. On parchment paper, roll dough gently — it will still be on the crumbly side, so only attempt to flatten it slightly with each roll — until it is 1/4-inch thick. Cut into desired shapes and space them an inch apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle decoratively with coarse sugar. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

5. Leave cookies on baking sheets out of the oven for a couple minutes before gently, carefully transferring them to cooling racks, as they’ll be fragile until they cool.

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Oreo Filling from Chocolate Covered Katie
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut butter, or non-hydrogenated shortening

1. To make the filling, mix all filling ingredients in a small food processor. Put about a scant teaspoon-full on half of the cookie discs, then top each with remaining cookie discs and fridge so filling firms up. Store in the fridge so the filling stays hard.

I made this filling with coconut oil and it definitely has a coconut flavor, which is not exactly like Oreo filling, but it has the right shortening texture of Oreo creme. I spread the cookies a little too thick and came up short, so I made another batch with Nature's Balance and it tastes more like the real deal, but doesn't have the texture right. My son ate the cookies and left the creme behind. He prefers the little hearts without creme.