Nocino Sablés
These buttery and tender sablés get a helpful kick from the addition of my homemade Nocino—a liqueur made with green walnuts.
Bittersweet and full of flavour, it’s typically made at the end of June, and often drunk the following Christmas. For this batch that I made in 2023, I ordered green walnuts from Gubler Nuss, and a box of the fresh and fragrant nuts arrived in the post. After resting in booze for over a month, they were strained and sweetened and then left in my cellar to soften the tannins.
(This year I made my Nocino with nuts from Schmiedhof Retschwil, which we picked up in person.)
More on Nocino?
I have some recipes on the blog, like Nocino Torte, Nocino Biscotti and this drink, plus there’s a guide to making your own, as well as some Nocino-based drinks in my Alpine Elixirs book!
It’s the glaze that really makes these cookies, so don’t be tempted to skip it!
150 g butter, room temperature
80 g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp Nocino
1/2 tsp salt
160 g flour
40 g walnut flour (optional, see below)
1/2 tsp baking powder
Glaze
200 g icing sugar
1 egg white
1 tbsp Nocino
walnuts
Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the yolk, Nocino, and salt.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder, then stir into the butter mixture until combined.
Roll the dough into two logs about 5 cm in diameter.
Chill in the fridge for about an hour, or until firm.
When you are ready to bake
Preheat oven to 180° C.
Cut the logs into 1 cm thick rounds and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the bottoms are golden.
To glaze
Sift the icing sugar. Whisk the egg white until foamy, then slowly whisk in the icing sugar and the Nocino. Once the cookies are cool enough to touch, but still warm, dip their bottoms in the glaze (this way you get a nice flat surface for decorating), then place them glaze-side up on a cooling rack. Place half a walnut on each cookie. Let cool completely and let the glaze set.
If you don’t have walnut flour, no problem—just use 200g flour.
I made these cookies very large, though they are also lovely as little bite-sized biscuits. If you want smaller ones, instead of 2, roll 4 logs with a diameter of 2.5-3 cm each. Cut them ever so slightly thinner and bake about 8 minutes.
In my book Swiss Cookies, I have a version of these cookies using absinthe (and VERY green food colouring!)
