Salted lavender sables with a cup of rich chocolate

These wonderfully buttery sable biscuits are decadently served with a small pot of rich chocolate to dip them into.

 

Servings: 9 biscuits for 4 people - two per person, plus an extra

 

75g salted butter, at room temperature

60g caster sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 egg yolk

110g plain flour, sifted

1½ tsp lavender

1 egg, beaten with 1tsp water

 

200g dark chocolate

200ml whole milk

2 tsp cornflour

 

6cm round biscuit cutter

 

Cream together in a large bowl the butter, sugar and salt; then mix in the egg yolk, the flour and lavender. Work into a smooth dough and shape into a flat circle. Wrap that disc of dough in cling film and chill for an hour at least.

 

Pre heat the oven to 175C. Line a baking sheet with parchmentpaper. 

 

Roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper to ½ cm thick. Using the biscuit cutter, stamp out 9 biscuits then carefully lift each onto the baking tray, keeping space between each one as they will spread. Chill for 10 mins. 

 

Brush the tops of the biscuits with the beaten egg. Use the tines of a fork to imprint lines across the top of each biscuit. Bake for  approximately 15 mins until they are just turning brown- you might need to rotate the tray halfway through for even baking. Lift the biscuits onto a wire rack to cool.

 

For the chocolate: Break the chocolate into a bowl that sits on top of a pan of simmering water. As the chocolate starts to melt, whisk in the milk and cornflour. Keep whisking for about 5 minutes. Pour into espresso cups. 

 

Serve straight away with the sables - or wait for the chocolateto set a bit firmer.

(This recipe originally featured for Borough Market.)

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