French Butter Cookies : Palets Bretons or Galette Bretonne ~ 法式奶油曲奇饼

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There are many names for this butter cookie.  Galette Bretonne, Palets Bretons, Sables or simply put French Butter Cookies which orginated from Brittany in the North-West of France where it’s famous for its high quality salted butter.  In French,  Sable means Sandy and Breton refers to Bretagne region.  So literally it’s Sandy Cookies from Brittany. They are somewhat like shortbread but richer because of the addition of egg yolk, flat, sweetish, a wee bit salty, crunchy and always with their signature criss-cross pattern on top.  These salted, golden cookies are very addictive and you simply can’t stop at one and it’s perfect for tea time.  As I prefer more bite to this cookie, I opted to use caster sugar and if you like to try with a different flavour of French Butter Cokies, do hop over to Anncoo’s post.

1. Beat butter and sugar in a mixing bowl till creamy.
2. Add in the egg yolk and mix well.
3. Sift in the flour and baking powder, mix well.
4. The mixture is crumbly.  Use fingers to bring the dough together and flatten it.  Cling wrap the dough and chill in the fridge for 20 mins.
5. Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick, in between two plastic sheets and let chill in the fridge for another 20 mins. or even overnight.  Cut the dough with a cookie cutter and place the cookies onto a parchment lined baking tray.  
6. Apply egg wash.  Let chill and dry the egg wash in the fridge for another 10 mins.  Apply another round of egg wash.  Then with the back of a fork draw a criss cross pattern on each cookie.
7. Bake cookies in a preheated oven of 180 deg.C for 12 to 15 mins. till golden brown.  Let cookies cool before storing in an airtight container.
8. Yield :  13 cookies