FFwD – Salted Butter Break-Ups

This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie is the Salted Butter Break-Ups, and can be found on pages 400-401 in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table.

I haven’t participated in several weeks, for one reason or another, and I was overjoyed – yes, overjoyed to be able to join in this week.

These cookies are a snap to put together, and because you don’t have to scoop them or cut them out into shapes (unless you want to cut them out – the dough would work just fine for that), they’re quick to prep and get into the oven.

They’re also quick to disappear.  I made them yesterday, and after my kids’ lunches are packed, I don’t think we’ll have any left.

Here’s what’s involved…

First, you pulse together flour, salt, and sugar in the food processor (or you could whisk them together if you want). 

Next you add in the cold, unsalted butter and pulse until the flour is kind of grainy with larger bits of butter here and there.

And then you drizzle in up to 5 tablespoons of cold water until the dough comes together but isn’t soggy.

(That’s the view through the top opening in my food processor.  Exciting, isn’t it?)

Next, you shape the dough into a square, wrap it in plastic, and pop it in the fridge for at least an hour.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven and beat an egg yolk with a little water.

Roll out the dough into a roughly formed rectangle about a quarter of an inch thick.  I rolled mine out between sheets of plastic, which accounts for the kind of wrinkly look to the dough’s surface.

And I know – it’s so tempting to straighten those edges, but really, you don’t have to, so put the knife down!

Now you take your egg yolk and brush it over the surface of the dough.

Nope.  The kids were at school. 

I made the smiley face.

So here’s the cookie-to-be, all nice and shiny.

You could get away with baking it as-is, but Dorie’s directions tell you to make a crosshatch pattern with the tines of a fork.

So, of course, I did.

The first set of lines was easy – just drag the tines of the fork in parallel lines across the surface of the cookie.

But I found when I was running the fork cross-ways, if I had all four tines going at the same time, it kind of dragged the dough and looked like this:

Not very pretty, is it?

So I finished up by just using one tine at a time.

And that portion looked like this:

Okay, so my lines aren’t parallel much, but at least the cookie surface doesn’t look as messy.

Anyway, you pop the cookie in the oven and bake about 30-40 minutes (mine went exactly 40).

Then you take it out, let it cool on the pan to room temp, and it’s ready to break up into pieces and eat!

Coincidentally, my kids came home from school shortly after this cookie had cooled.

I asked them to please try some and let me know what they thought.

They tasted and considered and evaluated and pondered…and both gave the cookie a thumbs up.

The funny thing was, after her initial evaluation, Julia decided she didn’t really like the cookie after all.  I can never figure her out, food-wise.  But I will keep trying.

~~~

If you’d like to see what the other FFwD bakers thought of this recipe, head on over to the French Fridays website.  All the links should be up at some point this morning.    

Comments

[yummychunklet]

Love the smiley face egg wash! Your cookie looks like it turned out great! Great photos!

[K]

Fantastic! Have to say, these were quick to disappear even without kids in the house ;)
- K

[Cher]

This one was fun, wasn't it? Cute pics of the kids enjoying. Love the pink food procesor!

[tia @ buttercreambarbie]

your kids are gorgeous! amazing eyes.
I'm also jealous of your pink processor.
I'm still playing FFWD catchup, so I made the cheese bread this week.
Buttercreambarbie

[Lana]

I did the same thing with my kids - baked the cookie just before they came back from school! And the cookie disappeared pretty fast (I claimed the brown, crispy edges:)
Your kids are adorable! They seem to be completely immersed in the role of tasters:)
BTW, are all of your kitchen appliances pink?:)

[Jayne]

Not all of them - I started the pink thing too late for that. Ive got two KA stand mixers - one is black, one is white. Id love to get a pink one, but I dont REALLY need 3. I do have a few other kitchen things that are pink. I was never a pink person until my daughter came along, then it sort of grew on me. And when I do purchase pink, its always when the proceeds will go to breast cancer research. So theres a method to my pink madness. :)

[Tricia S.]

Loved all of your process photos - especially the one with the smiley face, but your children's photos are priceless. When we share our results with our kids - or grandkids- or whoever is the lucky one to come into the kitchen at Dorie time - it makes it all the more precious. This FF blog experience is creating so many family memories - an unexpected and lovely result.