Sablé is French means sand; for cookies it refers to their tender and crumbly texture. As the crumbles of these Thandai Sablé melts in your mouth, the taste of warm spices of Thandai refresh your taste buds. (Would you like to dunk them in cold milk? You and I are alike!!)
Let me take a step back and talk about Thandai; it’s a cold drink (thand means cold in Hindi) prepared from mix of nuts and spices. The two main ingredients that gives thandai powder it’s unique flavor are fennel and peppercorn. Add the powder to cold milk, garnish with rose petals and you have a refreshing drink in your hand!
And Thandai is largely associated with the festival of Holi or more broadly known festival of colors; hence the colorful cookies!
Happy Holi!
Happy Baking!
Thandai Sablé
Ingredients
Thandai Powder
- 1/4 cup raw almonds
- 3 tbsp pistachio
- 1 tbsp cashews
- 2 tbsp poppy seeds
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 10 green cardamom
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
- 1/4 cup dried rose petals
Sablé
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup thandai powder
- pinch of salt
- food color optional
Instructions
Thandai powder
- Grind all the ingredients in a mixer to a fine powder consistency. Keep it aside. (Yields ~1 cup thandai powder)
Sablé
- In a bowl of a stand mixer attached with paddle attachment, beat the softened butter and sugar until creamy; around 4 minutes.
- Scrap the sides and bottom of the bowl, add vanilla and mix for another minute.
- Add flour, thandai powder and salt to the butter mix, mix on a low speed until the dough starts coming together.
- Transfer the dough on a clean work surface and using your hands bring the dough together by pressing to form a disc; don't knead.
- If you are adding food color, divided the dough accordingly and add color.
- Warp the dough with a plastic warp and refrigerate for an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon baking mat.
- If the refrigerated dough is too hard to roll, let is sit on the counter foe few minutes.
- On a floured surface roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness, cut into desired shape using cookies cutter and transfer the cookies on the baking sheet. Repeat the step for scraps.
- Freeze the baking sheets for 10 minutes.
- Bake for 15-16 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through baking. For two sheets bake on middle and lower racks.
- Let the cookies stay on the sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
