Poilâne’s Corn Sablés

Hi there! A very good question, and one that Dorie and I debated at length. Masa harina and corn flour are not the same ingredient -- masa harina has been nixtamalized (typically soaked in lime water), while corn flour has not. Dorie used Bob's Red Mill brand corn flour, which is essentially very finely ground cornmeal.

Instead of buying yet one more thing, couldn't you just use regular corn meal that has been put in the food processor for a finer grind?

My mother's go-to cookie is a shortbread cookie. For less fuss she rolls the cookie dough into a log and then slices off the desired number of cookies and refrigerates or freezes the rest. It's easier than rolling them out with a rolling pin, using a cookie cutter, and then having scraps that need to be re-rolled and thus toughened. Could work well for this recipe I think.

I have an electric coffee grinder that I use for flours, spices, etc. Put corn meal in a coffee grinder and you have corn flour in less than a minute.

Just made these using cornmeal not nearly as finely-ground as corn flour. The cookies were delicious, and the slight, extra crunch from the meal was a nice bonus of added texture.

Love the cup translation to grams. Makes things easier for European cooks.

Metric weights are the only way to bake, and I'm an American. Science!

I took a fairly fine corn polenta and put about 5-10% more than I would need into a strong blender ( a vita-mix), and wizzed away and then passed it through a fine metal sieve (that which did not go through the sieve I put back into the blender for further grinding) - results were perfect as was the finished product.

I made these and added a little orange zest. Then made sandwich cookies with a little apricot/pineapple jam. Delicious. The cookies aren’t very sweet, so the jam added just a hint more sweetness; it all went together well. Would be great with chocolate ganache, too.

And if you can't find Vermont Creamery cultured butter (yum) and live near a Trader Joe's their cultured butter is good.

Thanks to all who suggested buzzing regular cornmeal (aka polenta) to a suitably flourlike texture. As a reasonably competent but infrequent baker, I’ve grown weary of finding “the remains of the day” on my shelves, in the form of once- or twice-used bags of specialty flours (I have potato, chestnut, almond, rice, etc.), and have drawn a line at adding even one more! I won’t even ask whether Ms. Greenspan prefers yellow or white cornflour—I have yellow, and that’s what I’ll use.

Dorie, you write like a dream, and your taste in all foods is exquisite. Elegance and warmth is a rare combo. That’s you. Cheers, Faith

No, masa is ground hominy, which is corn treated with lye or lime. It is made to soak up water and form a dough, which won't work for this recipe. Corn flour, which is finely ground cornmeal untreated by the process above, is hard to find.

you might want to store your specialty flours in the freezer in a heavy duty freezer ziploc bag. certainly, at least in the refrigerator as they will turn rancid and are usually quite pricey!

That was a lot of work for a not very tasty cookie. It's austere, and tastes much more of corn and much less of butter than I like for a cookie. Nice texture, though. I won't make this recipe again and don't recommend it. I used Kerrygold Butter and Red Mill Corn Flour, as other commenters recommended.