If you follow me on social media, you’ve seen cameos of my extensive cookbook collection. While I draw from the some 200 titles it holds all year round, the holidays are my favorite time to sit down, crack open books and look for inspiration, recipes I haven’t tried, or special formulas I want to tweak to make my own. One of the corners is dedicated to the recipe books that I’ve been writing myself through the years; the recipes that I write down as I’m cooking or baking, and this is where I found this gem of a cookie recipe – almost forgotten but still glittering and SO GOOD.
Baking cookies for the holidays in obscene numbers is one of my favorite things to do this time of year. It has been since I was small enough to hide in the Tupperware cabinet beneath my mother’s stand mixer as she obsessively baked for our holidays too. Many of the recipes she whipped up are still favorites of mine, and they come out every year at this time, mingling on our constantly-changing cookie platter with a few of the standards that I have introduced to the party, and a few new cookies that I just couldn’t help but try. The past years this, this and this have been the newcomers. But this year, this long-lost Golden Milk Sablé Cookie – tender, chewy, strongly spiced and completely addictive are going to be one of the new hotshots, AND my contribution to the little cookie swap I’m holding this weekend. I can’t wait to share them with my guests, and with you!
You’ll notice that these special little cookies contain a bit of maple syrup and cane sugar; both critical to the shape, texture and flavor of these cookies. I am already anticipating the questions I’ll receive about swapping out the cane sugar for a sugar substitute, and so ahead of the requests let’s nip this question in the bud: I don’t recommend substituting the sweeteners, particularly with a zero-calorie sugar *substitute.* The addition of cane sugar here was not an oversight or afterthought. Not all sweeteners are created equally and here’s what I want you to know about the myriad you have to choose from.
Let me tell you a little story about a little girl named Lentine who LOVED baking holiday cookies with her mother. And, her mother LOVED baking…particularly at the holidays. Her cookie platters were a thing of wonder, full of flavors and textures and shapes. She was even known to make GINGERBREAD BOXES TO PACK GIFTS IN for crying out loud. But, when she was diagnosed with celiac, these holiday traditions lost their luster. Little Lentine, all of 12 years old, set out to adapt the recipes for their holiday favorites to suit her mother’s needs, and, while she was at it, she made a few extra “healthy” measures that felt particularly important given the diagnosis. She swapped in gluten-free flours (almond! coconut! chickpea!) and reduced sugars, changed fats, and liberally tackled the task. The result was a very sad sad SAD collection of holiday cookies that lacked the joy, love and “specialness” that the traditions were beloved for.
And so, as a reminder from both little me and grown-up, holistic practitioner me: the healthiest thing you can do this holiday is enjoy your traditions, spend time with your people, eat the things you crave and do so with obscene amounts of JOY.
You’ll notice that these cookies are sweetened with cane sugar (also known as evaporated cane juice) and maple syrup. I do NOT recommend using a substitute for this cane sugar under any circumstances. And here’s why.
Firstly, in the hunt for “unrefined sweeteners,” it doesn’t get much more refined than a sugar derived from a far-flung fruit from across the world, or a sugar alcohol derived from (yep) sugar. Lots of processing when it comes to monkfruit, erythritol and xylitol.
Cane sugar, on the other hand, is harvested from sugar cane, dehydrated and milled. All of the nutrients, minerals, cooling and anti-inflammatory properties (yes, you read that right!) are intact. Unlike refined white sugar, which is bleached, heated, then stripped of nutrients.
There are many many “sugar substitutes” that will be shopping for you from the grocery store shelves, touting that they’re “low calorie,” or “keto-friendly.” We are not interested in this, my friends. Our bodies NEED calories. To survive, thrive and action the activities that are most meaningful for us in our lives. Not to mention that, one of the biggest problems with these “low-calorie” sweeteners is that they don’t provide any nutritional benefit, which is highly confusing and disorienting to a healthy digestive system. Our bodies perceive nutritional value by TASTING our foods and sending a message to the gut to start breaking down enzymes to process those foods. When the body tastes “sweet flavors” (like these empty sweeteners) it send the message that something nutritionally dense, anti-inflammatory, and nutrifying is on the way to the body. When this food doesn’t arrive, and a calorie-free food arrives instead, the body goes kinda haywire. Off-the-chain cravings to make up for the emptiness will ensue, and with it, a few complications like a reduction in metabolic strength, a misfiring communication system between the thyroid and the gut (which can result in insulin resistance), and more. If diabetes, weight gain, slow metabolism, and gut distress are things you’d like to avoid, you’re best off leaving these sweeteners alone.
Lastly, as a pastry chef, I know that there’s no substitute for cane sugar. The molecular structure of the granules is what gives texture and volume to the baked goods that we have come to know and love. There simply is nothing that can do it quite like cane sugar.
Are tender, buttery, delicate, and yet robust, spiked with turmeric and warming spices. A sablé cookie is the French version of a shortbread cookie, but this recipe is amped a little bit with the addition of an egg yolk and some maple syrup, both of which help the cookies to have a very tender crumb. SO GOOD. The recipe suggests slicing and baking the cookies, which is the fastest way to get them into your life! But, you could also roll the dough out and cut it with cookie cutters if you wish. Sometimes, with slice and bake cookies, one of the edges of the cookies becomes a bit flat (from the knife pressing the dough into the cutting surface.) If you want to round out your cookies, I have a pro-level pastry trick for you: pull the cookies from the oven a couple of minutes early, then use a round cookie cutter or the bottom of a small glass – placed over the cookie – to swirl and reshape. As the cookie gently taps against the side of the cutter or glass, it will become round again. Then, pop the cookies back in the oven for the remaining time and pull your round cookies out when you’re done!
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