Sable dough is a versatile pastry staple. Shorter (crumbly) and richer than regular pie crust (thanks, eggs), sable makes a sturdy and tasty shell for tarts and also makes excellent shortbread-type cookies.
You may also enjoy these cute sable cookies I made for Halloween.
What will you make with your sable dough?
What Is Sable Dough?
Sable is the French term for “sand,” and sandy is a good description of the texture of sable dough.
Sable dough is rich and buttery and sturdy enough to work as a tart shell for full-sized tarts.
The egg adds additional richness and structure. It slices cleanly and has a wonderful crumbly mouthfeel.
If you like shortbread cookies, you’re probably going to like sable as well.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here’s what you’ll need to make plain sable.
From here, you can flavor it in many ways (see below).
- butter: Tenderizes gluten, carries flavor and helps with aeration when creamed with sugar. I use unsalted butter
- sugar: Adds sweetness, tenderness, moisture, and assists with browning. Helps with aeration when creamed with butter.
- salt: Snaps all the flavors into focus. I use Morton’s kosher salt
- eggs: Eggs lend structure, emulsifiers, fat, and color. They assist with browning and contribute to the texture of the cookies (or dough).
- flour: all-purpose is what you want here. This is the literal “bulk” of the recipe. The flour contributes to structure and texture. All-purpose flour contains a reasonable amount of gluten-forming protein, but not so much that you will end up with tough dough, especially if you follow the creaming method to make this dough
How to Flavor Your Sable Tart or Cookie Dough
Most of the time, the main flavor of sable is butter, but there is no reason you cannot add additional flavor, whether you’re making the dough for tart shells or cookies.
Here are some ideas for ways to add additional flavor:
- Add citrus zest. I like a microplane for this.
- Include some ground spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom. Orange and cardamom together would be lovely.
- Replace a portion of the flour for cocoa powder to make a chocolate version. Or use my chocolate sable recipe.
- Add some espresso powder to the mix for coffee-flavored cookies.
- Introduce an herbal note with crushed dried herbs or a small amount of culinary lavender.
- Especially when making this dough for cookies, consider rolling on a layer of cinnamon sugar before baking.
Difference Between Sable and Shortbread
Shortbread and sable are very similar kinds of dough, and often can be used interchangeably.
My sable recipe makes more than my shortbread recipe, but when scaled to contain the same amount of flour, here is how the two doughs stack up.
| Type | Flour | Sugar | Butter | Eggs | Salt |
| Shortbread | 17.5 oz | 7.5 | 20 oz | 0 | N/A (salted butter) |
| Sable | 17.5 oz | 7 oz | 9 oz | 2 | 1/2 t |
As you can see, flour and sugar amounts are pretty close to identical.
The main difference is that there is over twice as much butter in the shortbread as in sable. And this means shortbread is, well, shorter. More tender, with almost no gluten development to speak of.
Add the two eggs into the much leaner (less fatty) sable dough, you know you’ll end up with a sturdier dough, which is why sable, along with pate sucree, is often the tart dough of choice in French pastries.
Shortbread bakes into a more tender cookie that will crumble when you bite into it. Sable cookies are tasty, too, but they’re sturdier. This makes sable a good candidate for making cookies that you’re going to either decorate and/or ship.
Can You Use Sable Dough for Slice and Bake Cookies?
Absolutely! We used to do this at the restaurant all the time. Roll your sable into logs the diameter you want your cookies to be, wrap them well, and freeze them. Slice off what you need and bake from frozen. They come our perfectly.
What You’ll Need to Make Sable
You honestly don’t need a lot of equipment. A stand mixer is of course nice to have, but you can also use a hand mixer. The one piece of equipment I strongly advise everyone to get is a kitchen scale.
I weigh all my ingredients, sometimes in grams, but often in ounces. To get consistent results with ingredients that can pack down and take up different volumes, weighing is your best bet. This is the scale I use, and it has never failed me.
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
Looking for a Leaner Pie Dough?
Here are some other, less rich options for your pie and tart shells.
- Pate Brisee
- Perfect Quick & Easy Rough Puff Pastry
- Chocolate Caramel Buttermilk Tart (Buttermilk Pie Dough)
Questions?
If you have questions about this post or recipe, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can leave a comment on the post and I will get back to you within about 24 hours.
If your question is more urgent, please shoot me an email, and I will respond within 4 hours, unless I’m asleep.
A Note About Measurements
NOTE: Most of my recipes are written by weight and not volume, even the liquids.
Even though I try to provide you with volume measurements as well, I encourage you to buy a kitchen scale for ease of measuring, accuracy, and consistency.
This is the scale I use, love, and recommend. If you’re unsure, please read my post about how to use a food scale.
Don't let its small price and small size fool you. The Escali Primo is an accurate and easy-to-use food scale that I have used for years. It's easy to store, easy to use, has a tare function, and easily switches between grams and ounces/pounds for accurate measurements.
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Classic French Sable Dough Recipe
Sable Dough
Sable is French for "sand." And a crumbly, sandy crust (or cookie) is what this dough will get you. It's perfect for tarts. Add in lemon zest, vanilla, lavender flowers, etc to flavor it in any way you wish.
Ingredients
- 9 oz . unsalted butter
- 7 oz . sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 whole eggs
- 17.5 oz ., (1 pound, 1.5 oz) all purpose flour
Instructions
- Cream butter, sugar and salt.
- Add eggs, 1 at a time, until well incorporated.
- Add flour and mix on low just until the dough has come together.
- Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours, then roll and use as you will.
- Bake at 350 degrees, F, until lightly golden brown and delicious.
Notes
Note that baking times will vary depending on what you're using your sable for. Keep an eye on it. The dough should be firm, golden around the edges and lightly golden on top.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 18 Serving Size 2 ozAmount Per Serving Calories 190Total Fat 12gSaturated Fat 7gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 51mgSodium 69mgCarbohydrates 19gFiber 0gSugar 11gProtein 2g
The stated nutritional information is provided as a courtesy. It is calculated through third party software and is intended as a guideline only.
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Yis says
Hi, thanks for your recipe and I love your blog 🙂 may I ask, what kind of tarts would go best with such a dough? Would it be no bake filling or best with baked fillings?
I’m also wondering if it would be too hard and crumbly like some tarts
Jennifer Field says
Hi, Yis! Thanks for stopping by! Great question! Sable is almost exclusively used fully baked before adding your filling. Tart dough is generally rolled slightly thicker than pie dough, so it would not bake up well if you tried to bake it filled. The texture is very sandy, so it should not be hard to cut, even with the side of your fork for eating. Hope that helps. Please let me know if you have more questions. Take care. 🙂