Today" s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group are "David's Seaweed Sablés", a recipe that was given to Dorie by David Lebovitz.
Originally, David Lebovitz called them "Seaweed Cookies" ("Petites Galettes au fleur de sel aux algues") using French seaweed fleur de sel ("bright green seaweed flecked salt"). I was intrigued by this kind of salt and tried to find some in a number of different stores that are known to carry somewhat unusual foods, but to no avail, no such seasalt to be found anywhere. I then went to shop for Japanese roasted seaweed and found two kinds, black or a beautiful algae-green. After a quick consultation with the friendly "Sushi-Ladies" who were busy preparing the fresh sushi for the Japanese sushi counter (and very happy to oblige), I bought the green nori.
The sablés were very easy to prepare with butter, powdered sugar, egg, flour, fleur de sel and, of course, finely chopped green nori ( no easy task to finely chop roasted seaweed though...). After the dough had chilled, it was easier to cut into rounds or squares. Ten minutes or so for baking and they were done.
They did receive mixed reviews I must say. Some of the chosen taste testers liked them and the others just not, well, it must be one of those things that you either love or not...I found them to be fun to make, somehow it is a nice feeling to try something new, a recipe with ingredients that you know but would never have thought of using in a certain way. But they are not going to be my favorite savoury nibble that I will serve my guests or family in the future. I think if I feel like serving savoury biscuits, I will stick to my tried and true cheese crackers with aged Gouda cheese. But nevertheless, the recipe is worth trying and it is certainly different and I am sure that a lot of people will really enjoy the way the Seaweed Sablés taste.
To see how the other adventurous Doristas prepared these savoury biscuits, please click here.
Your serving bowls are perfect for this! I made them with sesame seeds and they were amazing. Apparently seaweed is not a favorite. Have a great weekend!
ReplyDeletePaula, your sesame seed version looked utterly delicious, I love sesame seeds in or with just about everything!
DeleteThese were unusual, but I did like them. These had mixed reviews when I served them. Amazingly, got all positive reviews when I brought the leftovers to work!
ReplyDeleteIsn`t it wonderful that your co-workers enjoyed them so much - peoples´tastes never cease to amaze me (in a good way, of course). And it is nice that you enjoyed them as well.
DeleteLove the serving platters - so perfectly fitting :-)
ReplyDeleteBEautiful job!
Thanks Cher - do have one great and relaxing holiday by the sea and congrats again on the graduation of your lovely daughter!
DeleteI'd say that you summed up my feelings about these cookies pretty exactly. Interesting, but we will probably not be making them again.
ReplyDeleteHope you are jumping up and down right now celebrating the German win! My husband is beside himself :-)
Rose, we were cheering for the home team, of course, but did not forget about the cookies or the blog among all of this excitment - Hope you are going to have one wonderful holiday back home!
DeleteOoooh, I love the sound of your Gouda cheese crackers! I also love your green nori! Looks so pretty in your very perfect looking Sables! I love your serving dishes…so appropriate!! Have a great weekend, Andrea!
ReplyDeleteKathy, thank you so much - I should post the recipe for the cheese crackers soon - they are nice to nibble on while waiting for dinner!
DeleteThese look sublime in these wonderfully perfect dishes!
ReplyDeleteThank you Trevor - the Eiffel Tower is only about a five hour drive away from here but I could still not evoke that Paris feeling around here either...maybe next time!
DeleteFirst, let's talk soccer. The colored picture on Page 1 of The New York Times this morning (Saturday) shows Angela Merkel going crazy with yesterday's win over Greece. Itr's a great picture and I personally am happy to see her so excited about something. Her job cannot be fun. I don't really understand soccer but love to watch it. About seaweed - leave it to you, Andrea, to come up with the perfect serving platters. Are they enamel? And, yes, mine was old British pottery, just a crummy piece that I love. I think we all feel like you do regarding this week's recipe. You just said it well.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am sure that I would not want to have chancellor Angela Merkel´s job for any amount of money in the world, ever. And the soccer, we almost all love it, it is a kind of tradition in this country to love soccer...and yes, I baked little soccer ball muffins and I sometimes bake stadium cakes and I will get out my soccer decoration and I am happier if our team wins rather than looses and so is probably chancellor Merkel, but we also all know that in the end it is just a game, n.th. more, n.th. less.
DeleteP.S.: I love vintage British pottery/china and thank you, again, for your wonderful comment. My fishy serving dishes are earthen/stoneware.
Those dishes are so perfect for these cookies! I LOVE looking at the photos on your blog - so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Maggie.
DeleteI am also loving your fish dishes! We really enjoyed these at our house.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice that you and your family enjoyed these interesting savoury cookies!
DeleteThose dishes are adorable and perfect for your cookies. We had a split decision on these, I thought they were tasty, but
ReplyDeleteI would like to try them with other ingredients. Tricia tasted shrimp when she tried them, and hubby had (1). Now I have to
think about what to do with the rest of the nori. Have a great weekend.
Mixed reviews at your house too - and the rest of the nori - I think, I will try to finely chop it and add to coarse French sea salt, package it in cute little glass containers and give them away as gifts (with one left for me).
DeleteI just love your fish serving pieces! :) Such a pretty color and perfect to serve these sables. Everyone liked them here, but I probably enjoyed them the most because I like the sweet/salty combo. I will be making them again to use up some of the nori because I don't care for sushi at all. I hope you are having a lovely weekend!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elaine - I had never used them before because although I love these fishy dishes, I had no clue what to use them for. In the future, I will just fill them up with homemade crackers (not necessarily with seaweed sablés though).
Delete