The Christmas Season in France

From toddlers in front of shop windows to cookies on platters, it's here!

As 2023 comes to a close, my career is taking the delightful turn to coaching and ghost writing (in addition to my classes). It’s thrilling how closely my new activities align with my lifelong passion, the art of cookbook writing.

To centralize my news on all of these activities, I’m creating this new platform as a way to share with you. It’s called substack and it is designed for creatives; it makes my non-tech savvy life easier, which will gives me more time to do what I do best; communicate, teach, write. My website is still where you go to sign up for classes and workshops!

This information may come as a repeat to some of you, since I published a similar intro last week but, guess what? It didn’t go out to my faithful email subscribers because of a technical glitch…what follows is brand new!

The animated windows at Le Bon Marché are alive; toddlers and their parents line up as of mid-afternoon when the crêches, or daycares, release their charges. They are joined by all ages, all cultures, because there is something universal about imaginary worlds behind a window.

The street where I live has tinsel Christmas trees and silvers snowflakes strung above it, the butcher is urging clients to order their holiday capons or turkeys, and as for the epiceries, or small groceries, they’re pulling in record amounts of clementines, persimmons, and litchis, each a holiday fruit.

My contribution to the season? I have made our foie gras terrine, and began baking about a month ago, beginning with my fennel-laced Italian fruitcake, and honey pfeffernuse, each of which needs to ripen.

Other holiday rituals and traditions are simple. They began last week with a dinner for friends arriving from Amsterdam, on their way to Spain. It’s the kick off to their holiday, and every year they arrive after a day on the road, wedges of cheese, bottles of wine, and flower bulbs tumbling from their bags. We toast in the holiday season with a big meal in front of the fire, enveloped in candlelight, it is our official and delicious start to the season.

I have always hosted a large party before Christmas to mark the season, too. I used to refer to it as the “office party” because most of our guests were entrepreneurs. The cast of characters has changed and it has become a ore lavish sit-down dinner (this is France, after all!). This year it’s a nod to Thanksgiving, with roast turkey as the main dish, and a few traditional dishes to accompany it.The crowd will be international - they don’t care about dates and will just love sitting down to a hearty meal!

I’m looking forward to this, along with holiday gallery openings and pop-ups in the city, and other dinners that feature seasonal ingredients like oysters and scallops and, just the other night, incredible pheasant. Not soon enough, the children will roll in and as children are, even into adulthood, they arrive exhausted and ready to be taken care of. I cannot wait.

Baking is the leitmotif until they arrive, so that platters of cookies can be shared, a l’Americaine. I hope you will add the following recipe to your repertoire. It’s a traditional Norman sablé, and perfect for the holidays!

CHOCOLATE VANILLA SABLES
LES SABLES AU CHOCOLAT ET A LA VANILLE

For the vanilla dough:

14 tablespoons (210g) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup (100g) confectioners’ sugar

1 large egg yolk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-3/4 cups (200g) cake flour

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

For the chocolate dough:

14 tablespoons (210g) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup (100g) confectioners’ sugar

1 large egg yolk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 cups (170g) cake flour

1/3 cup (30g) unsweetened cocoa

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

For rolling out the sablés:

½ cup (100 g) vanilla sugar

1. To make the vanilla dough, in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the butter until it is soft and pale yellow. Add the confectioners’ sugar and mix well. Add the egg yolk and mix until it is blended, then mix in the vanilla.

2. Sift the flour and the salt onto a piece of parchment paper.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat it into a rectangle that is about 1-inch (2.5cm) thick. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.

4. To make the chocolate dough, repeat the above steps, sifting together the flour, the cocoa and the salt. Refrigerate the chocolate dough.

5. Remove the doughs from the refrigerator about 20 minutes before you plan to roll them out.

6. To roll out the cookies, place two 12 x 17-inch (30 x 42.5cm) pieces of parchment paper side-by-side on a work surface and lightly flour them. Roll out the vanilla dough to a 10 x 15-inch (25 x 37.5cm) rectangle on one of the pieces of parchment. Repeat with the chocolate dough on the other piece of parchment. Gently flip the chocolate dough atop the vanilla dough, leaving the parchment paper on the chocolate dough. Gently but firmly, press the doughs together with the rolling pin by rolling over them once or twice. Remove the top piece of parchment paper and trim the edges of the doughs to make an even rectangle. Reserve the scraps of dough.

7. Turn the long edge of the dough towards you. Gently pinch together the two doughs and roll them very tightly into a long roll, using the parchment paper to help you by pulling on the edge of it to encourage the dough to roll, then pulling down on it to encourage the dough to roll tightly. This will take a bit of care and time, but persist. After the doughs are rolled together, sprinkle the sugar on the work surface and roll the log in the sugar to coat it evenly. Refrigerate for at least an hour, and up to 24 hours. Gently bring the scraps together and roll them into a tight roll. Roll this in the sugar, wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

8. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

9. Cut the dough into 1/4-inch (.75cm) thickness and place them on the prepared baking sheets about ½-inch (1.3cm) apart. Bake in the center of the oven until the sablés are golden on the edges and slightly puffed, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature. The sablés will keep for about 3 days in an airtight container.

Makes about 7 dozen sablés