La Sablésienne Les Folies Salted Caramel Shortbread Tin 150g

The tin catches the eye first, but the biscuit gives it a reason to stay on the table. Inside are La Sablésienne's scalloped 1670 sablés with salted-butter caramel pieces. The maker uses wheat flour, fresh butter, sugar, caramel pieces, eggs and a natural caramel flavouring in this exact recipe. The bite begins with the familiar short, crisp butter biscuit; the caramel pieces bring soft sweetness and a little salty punctuation. It feels richer than a plain sablé, yet the small rounds keep the serving pleasantly light. This is the same salted-caramel flavour family as the maker's 100 g sleeve, but the 150 g Les Folies metal box has a different job. It can be carried to someone's house, set beside a teapot, then kept for small things when the biscuits are gone. That makes the contents worth discussing rather than merely admiring through the packaging. Open the lid just before serving and let guests take a few; the simple act of passing a tin is half the pleasure. A neat little occasion, with almost no preparation.

• The host's tea tray: Put the tin beside Dammann Frères Breakfast Tea. The tea's stronger structure keeps the caramel and butter from taking over the cup. Serve the tea separately and leave the tin open so people can help themselves.
• After dinner, without a fuss: Pair a few sablés with Mokaflor Decaffeinato. Coffee's roasted note works neatly with salted caramel, while the decaf choice lets the evening continue at its own pace. The coffee is sold separately.
• An easy gift: Bring the unopened tin to a host, teacher or neighbour who enjoys a proper biscuit break. If you are serving it yourself, put the rounds on a small plate and keep the tin visible. Afterward, it can hold recipe notes, ribbons or other small keepsakes; no elaborate gift wrap needed.

La Sablésienne's home is Sablé-sur-Sarthe, the town that lent its name to the sablé biscuit. The house was founded in 1962 and makes this caramel recipe as part of its 1670 Marquise de Sablé line. The earlier date points to the tale of the Marquise presenting little round biscuits at the Grand Condé's court; it does not claim the modern company was already there. There is a nice continuity in placing a familiar local recipe in a decorative metal box. Once, the biscuits would have been offered around a courtly table; today, the tin can do the same job at a kitchen table with much less ceremony. The maker says its 1670 dough is richer in butter and egg than its other sablés. That is a more useful reason to give the box than the decoration alone: it is a present meant to be eaten.

Ingredients and allergens: Wheat flour, fresh butter (milk), sugar, salted-butter caramel pieces, natural caramel flavouring, eggs, salt, corn starch. Made in a workshop that also uses sesame, soy and tree nuts.

Store in a cool, dry place, away from heat and moisture.