Ever since I made my strawberry lemongrass cakes, I discovered how delicious sablés Bretons cookies are. I am glad that I was indecisive and picky at the same time when choosing the right cake bottoms for my strawberry cakes because otherwise I might not discovered these cookies. I cannot get enough of these luscious, buttery cookies these days and it is hard to resist a sablé Bretons. I probably should not make these cookies so often but I cannot restrain myself baking them. I have the same trouble with cherries at the moment. I am having a hard time to overcome the temptation buying too many cherries. Every time I visit the farmers' market I cannot resist and buy a ridiculous amount of cherries  - more than I can possibly consume - because I cannot resist these luscious red looking little fruits. Hence, I wanted to combine my two current addictions: cherries and sablés Bretons cookies.
I was inspired by this French recipe. Similar to the French recipe I made thick sablés Bretons cookies, topped the cookies with a cheesecake mousse and added a cherry jam between the cookie and the mousse. The result is a relatively light cheesecake mousse that paires so well with the cherry jam and the crunchy and buttery sablés Bretons cookies. It is delicious! It is a wonderful cake for those late summer nights al fresco dinner. 


NOTE: The cakes taste the best on the day of assembling. The next day the sablés Bretons cookies get soft because of the cheesecake mousse. I prepare the cakes in the following order. I make the cherry jam a day before assembling the cakes or a few days ahead if I am busy. I make the sablés Bretons dough a night before I bake the cookies. The next day - usually in the morning - I bake the sablés Bretons cookies. When serving the cakes for afternoon tea, I make the cheesecake mousse in the morning time. When serving the cakes for a al fresco dinner I prepare the cheesecake mousse and assemble the cakes in the afternoon.

 Makes 8 to 10 cakes ( 6 cm / 2.4 inches in diameter; 4,5 cm / 1.8 inches in height)

Sablés Bretons Cookies

  • 75 g / 5 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 75 g / 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 30 g egg yolks / equals egg yolks of two medium sized egg
  • 100 g / 1 cup pastry flour, sifted
  • 2 g / 1 /2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • Mix butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add the egg yolks to the mixture and stir well again. 
  • Mix pastry flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until all ingredients are well combined. Place the dough between two parchment papers and roll out the dough until it is 7 mm to 10 mm ( 0.3 inches to 0.4 inches) thick. The dough is very sticky, that is why it is the best to roll out the dough between two parchment papers. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight. 
  • Preheat the oven to 170 °C / 340 °F. 
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut out circles with ring molds and place the ring molds onto the baking sheet ( bake the sablés Bretons in the ring molds).
  • Bake the sablés Bretons for 17 to 20 minutes until the cookies have a golden brown color. While the cookies are still warm, carefully remove the rings. Let the cookies cool completely. In the meantime, clean the ring molds.

Cherry Jam

  • 125 g cherry puree * 
  • 115 jam sugar (1:1) **
  • Place cherry puree and the jam sugar in a pot. Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for three minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and pour the jam onto a flat plate. Let the jam cool completely. 
  • You can prepare the jam a few days ahead. Keep the jam in a jar and store it in the fridge. 
* This is how you make your own cherry puree: Puree 150 g / 1 heaped cup pitted sour cherries (you can also use frozen sour cherries) and strain it through a fine sieve. Add about 25 g / 2 tablespoons granulated sugar to the cherry puree. (10 % sugar is added to the fruit puree). 
** This means that a jam sugar is used with equal weights of fruits (or in our case puree) and sugar. If you use a jam sugar 2:1 you need twice as much fruits or puree as jam sugar.

Cheesecake Mousse

  • 75 g / 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 65 ml / 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 100 g eggs / equals 2 medium sized eggs
  • 2 sheets gelatin (3 g), soaked
  • 75 g / 5 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
  • 145 g / 2/3 cup cream cheese
  • 125 g / 1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon heavy cream
  • Mix powdered sugar, lemon juice and eggs in a heatproof bowl. 
  • Over a double boiler heat the bowl with the mixture - continuously whisk - until the mixture has reached the temperature of 84 °C / 183 °F. You will notice that the mixture has thickened up; remove the boil from the double boiler
  • Add the gelatin and stir until the gelatin has completely dissolved; then add the butter cubes and stir until the mixture is smooth. 
  • Let the mixture cool for a couple of minutes until it is lukewarm. Add the cream cheese and mix well again. 
  • Whip the heavy cream until creamy. Fold in the heavy cream into the mixture. 

Assembling

  • Line a flat plate or a board with parchment paper, place the ring molds onto it and place the sablés Bretons cookies into the rings. 
  • Spread about a teaspoon of cherry jam on each sablés Bretons cookie. 
  • Carefully spoon the cream cheese mousse into the rings and level the surface out. 
  • Let the mousse set in the fridge for 2 to 3 hours. 
  • Carefully remove the ring molds.
  • Keep the cakes in the fridge until you consume the cakes. 
  • Decorate each cake with a cherry. I dip the cherries into cherry puree and then sprinkle the cherries with sugar. This way the sugar will stick to the cherry ( if you dip the cherries into water, the sugar roll off the cherry).