I found a recipe in the nytimes.com years ago, Dorie Greenspan's Master Recipe for Sables. It looked good but just a tad to fussy for me. It is really only a shortbread recipe with eggs but those eggs make such a difference!
Sables
1 cup butter (2 sticks, the highest fat content you can find makes a better cookie, like Plugra but works even without that)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 large egg yolks
2 cups all purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream it together well.
Like I said, the only difference from shortbread is the egg yolks, so add the egg yolks to the bowl now and mix well. Add the flour and salt and mix.
Prepare baking sheets with silpat or parchment paper. Take a small spoon full of dough. Roll in a ball. Place on baking sheet. I mush with a glass bottom just so the look different then shortbread.
(At this point, if you have read the Dorie Greenspan recipe you will have noticed I left out a lot of fuss. This is really how I do it and they turn out as good as the fussy way. I have tried both).
When the baking sheet is full, bake for 15 minutes or until golden.
The Christmas cookie baking is done. I did not say Christmas baking, just the cookie portion.
More tomorrow.