Palets Bretons

Yet another plain old fashioned recipe that I have made several times during the course of Simon's radiotherapy. These simple shortbread like biscuits make an ideal snack if you are stuck at the hospital and can't eat much. 

 

Ingredients

2 egg yolks

100 g sugar

100 g room temperature salted butter

1 tsp vanilla paste

140 g plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

Method

1. Beat the egg yolks and sugar for 2 minutes until the mixture goes pale.
2. Add the butter and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes.
3. Shift in the flour and baking powder and stir until it forms a dough.
4. Roll the dough into a cylinder 10 - 15 cm long. Make sure to square off the ends so you have an even diameter along the whole length.
5. Wrap the cylinder of dough and refrigerate for 3 hours.
6. Heat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
7. Cut the dough cylinder into 12 mm slices and place them on the tray, spaced out by a couple of centimetres.
8. Put the tray in the oven and drop the temperature to 150°C.
9. Bake for 18 minutes.
10. Cool on the tray.

Makes about a dozen biscuits.

These deliciously crumbly buttery biscuits are emblematic of Breton cuisine, containing the four basic ingredients that many Breton cakes are made of -- egg yolks, sugar, flour and salted butter. To be a true palet breton the recipe must contain at least 20% salted butter. Surprisingly, they are a 20th century invention, developed by an enterprising baker in Finistere in 1920. He took the traditional sablé and galette bretonne and made a thicker, more rustic looking biscuit, reminiscent of Scottish shortbread. Nowadays commercial palets bretons are protected with an IGP, so must be made in the traditional way, in Brittany, if they are to be labelled and sold as palets bretons. Or you can do as I have, and make them yourself at home. They are easy, but rely on quality ingredients, particularly the butter, to be really good.