Keto & Sugar Free Sablé Breton Biscuits are irresistible, crunchy, buttery, and have a perfect snap.
This is my delicious low-carb version of French butter cookies. With a negligible 0.5g net carbs in each one, I cannot believe it’s taken me so long to ketofy the original recipe.
Sablé Bretons are French shortbread-type biscuits. They are extremely popular in France, where you’ll find them in every French patisserie and café. Loved by everyone, you could probably think of them as the French equivalent of American chocolate chip cookies. They originate from Brittany, in Northern France, which is a region renowned for its love of butter. The name Sablé means sandy in French, and it is indeed what best describes the texture of these incredibly delicious biscuits.
On a scale of 1-10 in terms of least to most complicated recipes, this one easily scores a 1. One bowl, a few basic ingredients, some whipping, shaping and chilling, plus a few minutes baking time and they’re ready. Whoever thinks that French cuisine is difficult will change their opinion after baking my Keto & Sugar Free Sablé Breton Biscuits.
Real Butter is Better for Your Health!
As butter is the key ingredient for sablés, the better its quality, the better the result will be. No substitutions. Of any kind. It must be butter. And ideally from grass-fed, pastured cattle. Some people think all butter is the same. Wrong!!!! The nutrients an animal derives from its diet and natural environment are inevitably passed on to its meat, bones, other connective tissues, fat and milk.
As for margarine or other faux-butters… well, they’re as close to plastic as you can get. So leave it well alone. That stuff has caused more heart disease and blocked arteries in a few decades than any fast-food rubbish will ever do. Not to mention the inflammation and cancer links of its numerous chemical ingredients. Stick to butter (and ghee, and tallow) and you’ll live longer. Don’t believe me? Check out this comprehensive meta-analysis study published in the British Medical Journal. The message is clear: no need to fear saturated fats, or even trans-fats, as long as they are obtained from naturally raised ruminants (pasture animals).
How To Make Keto & Sugar Free Sablé Breton Biscuits
As well as plenty of butter, Sablés require flour, sugar and egg. My substitutions involve coconut and almond flour instead of wheat flour. And erythritol PLUS stevia powder to replace sugar. Using almond flour alone would make the sablés too unctuous, even when using ultra-fine, defatted almond flour. Coconut flour adds to the classic ‘sandiness’ of sablés and absorbs some of the fat, making them more palatable.
I don’t use salted butter or added salt (as the classic French recipe specifies), because salt heightens the cooling effect of erythritol (in short pastry). Best avoided – me thinks!
You may also wonder why the use of both erythritol AND stevia. It’s simple: erythritol alone delivers a sharp cooling or pinching sensation on the tongue, especially in shortcrust pastry. Stevia can be bitter when used in sufficient amounts to achieve the correct level of sweetness. And worse, that residual bitterness is even more prominent in shortcrust. Combining the two together, in the correct ratio, means that a) less of each sweetener is needed, and b) those unwanted effects become undetectable. However, if your ‘stevia’ package is already a mixture of erythritol plus stevia, it will be fine on its own.
Perfect Sablés. The Secret.
The secret to great Keto & Sugar Free Sablé Breton Biscuits is in beating butter and sweeteners until a consistency that is fluffy, pale and airy. It is those invisible air pockets that create the light and crumbly structure, so the more you cream your butter, the better. 5 minutes minimum. Manual hand-whisking works, but it’s a helluva workout! If you have an electric whisk or a stand mixer, you’re in luck! Whatever you do, don’t skimp on this step. You can thank me later 😀
Enjoy!
- Yield: 10 biscuits
- Serving: 1 biscuit
- Calories: 68
- Fat: 5.5g
- Net Carbs: 0.5g
- Protein: 2.5g
- 50g unsalted butter
- 1 extra large egg yolk (20g)
- 40g erythritol (U.S. option HERE)
- ⅛ tsp pure stevia powder (U.S. option HERE)
- ½ tsp vanilla extract (U.S. option HERE)
- 20g fine coconut flour (U.S. option HERE)
- 40g ultra-fine almond flour (U.S. option HERE)
- cream butter with sweeteners and vanilla extract until light and pale in colour.
- incorporate egg yolk, then flours.
- without overworking the dough, shape it into a ball, flatten and wrap in cling film; refrigerate for 1 hour.
- once chilled, unwrap the dough, place it over a silicone pastry mat and place cling film over it.
- roll it out to 5mm and cut desired shapes, reworking the dough until you've used it all up.
- place the biscuits on an oven tray lined with non-stick baking paper and chill for 20 minutes, then bake in pre-heated oven at 160°C fan for about 10 minutes, until they start browning around the edges.
- allow the biscuits to cool thoroughly before handling.
Would a cookie press be OK to use?
Hi Lizbet, do you know what? I have a cookie gun but it scares the hell out of me, so I’ve never used it. I would think that you need a softer ‘dough’ for it to work, so I’m inclined to say no. If you decide to test your press, skip the 1 hour chill time, so the dough is softer, and chill afterwards, before baking. Please let me know if it works. I may give it a try myself, next time I make these.
These look amazing. I have set myself a reminder to try it when I get the chance.
Oh, Thank you Chrissie! I used a daisy cookie print, but any design will add a bit of extra French finesse!
It looked so tasty, I might be fine with globs 😉