Pierre Herme’s Viennese Shortbreads

Ingredients:
190g unsalted butter, room temperature
75g confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 pinch fleur de sel or other flake salt
1 pinch vanilla powder*
1 large egg white, room temperature
225g all purpose flour
200g dark chocolate

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*I made my own vanilla powder with saved vanilla pods that had steeped in dairy, then washed and dried. I put them in the spice grinder until finely ground. This will be stronger than purchased vanilla powder that has additives like cornstarch to keep it from clumping. For 1 pinch, I used 1/8 teaspoon powder. If you wish to substitute, the conversion I found was 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder = 1 teaspoon paste or extract. For this recipe that’s 1/4 teaspoon, but I like vanilla so I’d personally bump it up to 1/2 teaspoon.

Equipment:
Piping bag
Medium fluted tip. Pierre Herme used a European D8 tip, I used Ateco 824.

Directions:

For the cookies:

Preheat the oven to 165°C/329°F convection or 355°F standard.

In a large bowl or in a stand mixer, whisk the softened butter, sugar and salt until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla and egg white and beat till combined. Sift in the flour half at a time, and mix until just incorporated.

In a piping bag fitted with a medium fluted tip, add half the dough. It is easier to manipulate if the bag is not too full. If the dough feels stiff, you can massage the bag a bit to warm it up. On a sheet pan lined with parchment, pipe “W” shape cookies, about 2-2 1/2 inches wide and spaced 1 inch apart. Repeat with the remaining half of the dough.

Bake the cookies for 14 minutes convection or 18-20 minutes standard oven, until golden on the edges. Let sit for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

For the tempered chocolate coating:

Coarsely chop the chocolate with a serrated knife and melt in a small heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of boiling water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until it reaches 45-50°C or 113-122°F.

Remove the bowl of chocolate from the heat. Place the bowl in a second bowl filled with cold water and 4-5 ice cubes. Stir the melted chocolate occasionally as it will begin to set on the sides of the bowl. As soon as the melted chocolate reaches 27-28°C or 80-82°F, put the bowl back over the saucepan, keeping a close eye on the temperature. It should stay between 31-32°C or 88-90°C.

Dip the shortbread halfway into the chocolate, then place on parchment paper to cool and harden.

Note from Pierre Herme:

You can increase the amount of vanilla or flavor it as you wish with cinnamon, ginger or a mixture of spices.

For a step-by-step, you can watch Pierre Herme’s Instagram Live here. It is all in French so I tried my best to match up the video with the recipe above.