One morning we were planning to meet up some friends at the Mandaloun cafe for breakfast. There was also a little more to it than that, because I had been promised a gift, something tasty they told me. Joe, had called me the week before to introduce me to a unique kind of sablés he thinks are the best in town.
It was 11am when the meeting took place, out on the terrace of Al Mandaloun in Dbayeh and a certain box was destined to leave home with me. In a transparent cube, covered with burgundy from top to bottom were a collection of biscuits stacked one on the other, around 75 sablés fitting in this 15×15 centimeter box in total. Sablé is a French round shortbread biscuit that originated in Caen, in the province of Lower Normandy.
According to the “letters” of the Marquise de Sévigné, the biscuit was created for the first time in Sablé-sur-Sarthe in 1670. The French word sable means “sand”, which is the term French bakers use in place of the English term “breadcrumbs”, as you rub the cold butter, flour and sugar together at the start of the recipe to make texture like breadcrumbs (or sand) before adding the egg.
I’ve had thousands of different sablés before but had never tried something as good as this, with such a thickness and such a size. Every piece is one millimeter thick and covered with sugar powder. Each biscuit’s heart is filled with a homemade apricot jam and covered with another biscuit layer.
Thin, or to say the thinnest sablés imaginable, the two layers combined constitute a creation that’s even thinner than one side of the commercial sablés found in the country.
Take one, place it with care on your tongue and simply press it up over your palate. No need for any effort, no need for chewing… The cookie will crumble into a hundred bits then melt like butter dissipating its flavors all around your mouth. Fine pieces of delicate joy, redefining the meaning of finesse; a sablé like you never seen before. Light, soft, small, beautiful and most importantly very tasty.
A rich flavor from the cookie, a buttery pleasant feel trapped into this beautiful textured cookie that has been made with care and the proper ingredients to form a unique creation. If you have a sweet tooth, then eat it as is. If you’re not into sugar much, just brush the powder sugar off the top. I’m personally confident this is the finest apricot white sablé the country has to offer. I’ve heard they have a chocolate version and I will be tasting it soon.
Homemade by a woman named May Dabbous, the sablés can be ordered by calling her personally on +9613201087
