La Sablésienne Apple & Caramel Shortbread Cookies 100g

Apple and caramel do different jobs in this biscuit. The apple pieces bring the fruit, while the caramel adds a rounded sweetness that settles comfortably into the buttery crumb. Bite through the crisp edge and the sablé breaks gently, bringing the two flavours together as you eat. It has the appeal of an apple-and-caramel dessert in a form you can pick up with your fingers.

Fresh butter, wheat flour and eggs form the biscuit, with apple and caramel pieces through the dough. Apple and caramel flavourings also contribute to the recipe’s character. The pleasure is in that combination: fruit, golden caramel and a crumb that gives way readily after its first little crunch. You do not need a generous topping to make it interesting.

This is a good sablé for the person who likes a comforting finish to a meal. Take it with coffee while the cups are being cleared, or set one beside a scoop of vanilla ice cream. A warm drink draws the occasion out; cold cream makes the biscuit’s crispness part of a small dessert. Either way, apple and caramel make themselves very welcome.

• Vanilla ice cream and a warm apple: Soften a few slices of apple in a pan and serve them with vanilla ice cream. Add a sablé at the table, keeping its crisp crumb against the soft fruit and melting cream. It is an easy dessert to assemble after dinner, with the biscuit carrying the apple-and-caramel theme through to the last spoonful.
• Tea when the afternoon slows: Brew Dammann Frères Earl Grey Yin Zhen and put a few biscuits on a small plate. The tea’s bergamot fragrance brings another direction alongside the fruit and caramel. If coffee is your preference, make your usual cup and start with the biscuit plain. Give yourself time to enjoy the crumb before deciding whether another one is needed.

Apple and caramel are a generous idea for a dessert: fruit with a golden sweetness, and usually something good to catch the juices. In this sablé, the partnership takes a smaller form. Apple pieces and caramel pieces sit inside the biscuit itself, ready for a cup of coffee or a spoonful of cream.

The recipe uses French apples, bringing that familiar fruit into La Sablésienne’s 1670 collection. You can enjoy the biscuit as it is, or follow its flavours into a dessert of your own. A little apple softened in a pan, a scoop from the freezer and a crisp sablé on the side make a pleasing finish to dinner. Keep the serving simple and let the combination do its work.

Store at room temperature. Keep the pack closed between servings and follow the best-before date printed on the packaging.