Breaking Up Is Fun To Do: Salted Butter Break-Ups

I was recently inspired by Nina of Daily Salt (a fellow participant in BAKED Sunday Mornings) to try Dorie Greenspan's recipe for "salted butter break-ups" from Around My French Table.  This recipe seemed so basic that it was easy to overlook while flipping through the cookbook; it makes one giant cookie that you break up into pieces for serving. 

To make the cookie dough, you combine flour, sugar, and coarse salt in a food processor, and then drop in pieces of cold butter and pulse until combined.  You then add cold water while the food processor is running until the dough almost forms a ball.  You need to wrap up the dough and stick it in the fridge for at least an hour, or up to three days.  When you're ready to bake, you take the dough out of the fridge, roll it out, brush it with egg yolk, and then use a fork (or I used a cake decorating comb) to make a crisscross pattern on the top.  You bake the enormous cookie until it's golden, let it cool, and then break it up into smaller pieces.  

The finished cookies were very buttery with a definite salt accent, crisp on the outside, and tender and pale on the inside.  My favorite bites were the extra flavorful and firm well-done edges.  The cross hatch pattern on top is quite beautiful after baking.  Although Dorie Greenspan recommends making these with sel gris -- which is comprised of very large crystals -- I used some less coarse fleur de sel instead.  I made this cookie twice and discovered that it's very important to make sure that the dough is rolled out evenly.  If the outside edge is tapered, it will brown too quickly and burn.  As a corollary, if the middle is is thicker than the edge, the center will not finish baking by the time the edges are done.   

The fact that you make only one big cookie poses a special hazard.  With regular cookies, you can always decide that you're going to eat just one.  But when you're just breaking pieces off of a large cookie, it's all too easy to go back to break off just one more little piece.  And another.  And another.

This cookie is a great reminder that something simple and rustic can still be very special!

Recipe: "Salted Butter Break-Ups" from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan, recipe available here at Lottie + Doof.