#295

Today was not my kind of day, even if Tom says that "it's nice being Anna right now." Ever have one of those days where your internal monologue has decided to whack your self confidence, which is now sleeping with the fishes? (Hi, Blog Sidekick!) Well, I pulled my first batch of lemon sables out of the oven 10 minutes ago and...Good. God. My day just got a whole lot better.

This is the actual recipe I used (scroll down past the rugelach, which I will be making shortly), but rubbed zest from 1.5 lemons into the granulated sugar. My Baking book has some nifty tips about forming these into perfect logs (use the left-over cardboard toll from paper towels), which I chilled over night. Then I brushed the logs with egg yolk and sprinkled them with red dusting sugar (since that's what I had on hand and I was too cheap - sorry, Anat! - to buy clear sugar). Rotate the roll 1/4 turn with each slice (also a nifty trick I just learned), bake for 12 minutes at 350. Eh! Voila! Instant Parisian holiday. (By the way, Tom, when are you taking me?)

Why sables, you ask? I once had a very stylish friend in NYC, one who I have foolishly lost touch with. She would bring me these heavenly lemon cookies from Marquet Patisserie, a little bakery near her house in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. I thought sables, which are a sandy (emphasis on the sandy) French butter cookie might be similar to these cookies. In the end, I don't think these are the same as the cookies of memory but, Holy Batman!, were these cookies good. I ate two in the first minute out of the oven (and I have the burnt tongue to prove it!), and then I may or may not have eaten a third one. I have a whole 'nother log of these in the fridge, which I just may hold on to since they keep.

And since I miss you all, a little card Tom gave me once next to a bride and groom charm my mother found.