Nicole Plue is the Director of Pastry and Baking Arts at San Francisco Cooking School. She began her restaurant career in San Francisco where she led the celebrated bread program at Hawthorne Lane before jumping coasts to New York when Danny Meyer recruited her to be the pastry chef on the opening team at Eleven Madison Park. While on the East Coast, Nicole also opened Terence Conran’s Guastavino’s and was tapped by Martha Stewart to develop recipes for the pastry and baking segments for Martha Stewart Living Television. In addition to her 2010 James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef, Nicole’s accolades include being named Pastry Chef of the Year 1997 by San Francisco Magazine and Rising Star Chef by the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Eureka! Chocolate Sablés

This sablé recipe was developed in class by my professional pastry & baking students at San Francisco Cooking School. We were looking to make a deeply chocolaty cookie with a dynamic “eat.” We played around with different sugar and chocolate rations, as well as granulations. I love what we came up with. It’s got multiple layers of crunch and shows off the intensity of the Guittard chocolate. 

Ingredients

140g All Purpose Flour

30g Guittard Cacoa Nature, natural cocoa powder

8g Baking Soda

113g Butter, room temperature

64g Granulated Sugar

64g Turbinado Sugar

1g Kosher Salt

2g Vanilla Extract

100g Guittard Eureka Works 62% Cacao, grated

60g Guittard Eureka Works 62% Cacao, rough chopped

Directions

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda into a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, sugars, salt, and vanilla until lightened, about 4 minutes. Add the dry ingredients and chocolates and mix just to combine.  The dough will be crumbly. 

Gather the dough up and roll out ½” inch thick between sheets of parchment.  Chill for at least 30 minutes.  Using a knife and ruler or bicycle cutter, cut the dough into 1 ¼” squares and place on parchment lined sheet pans or perforated non stick baking sheets. 

Bake at 325°F/163°C until firm, 10 to 12 minutes. 

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