Palet Breton (French Butter Biscuits)

Fill your empty cookie jar with the incredibly crispy, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth French butter biscuits - palet Breton. These are a year-round favorite - a divine sweet treat from Brittany to accompany your afternoon cup of tea or coffee.

I came up with the recipe for palet Breton accidentally when I had a few egg yolks as a leftover. I was surfing the Internet for baking ideas: lemon curd, lemon bars, etc., but I wanted to make something authentically French. Yes, palet Bretons came to my mind and the table.

What is palet Breton?

Palet Breton (translated "Breton puck" from French) is a French biscuit whose name comes from the shuffleboard game. The baked biscuits resemble metal disks (a cast iron pucks) used to play this game.

These French salted biscuits were created at the end of the 19th century and are a specialty of Northern France - the Brittany region, which is well-known for its excessive use of butter, especially salted butter. 

As per Brittany tourism:

Brittany's butter is special, most often salted, in particular using salt from Guérande. There are two reasons for that. First, butter is mainly milk (in particular, cream), and Brittany is a big milk producer. Secondly, in the past, the region was exempt from the salt tax. Brittany brought these two products together to ensure that its butter would keep for longer. That's also the reason why Breton butter retains all the flavors of the milk.

The Biscuit Traou Mad, a Pont-Aven company in France, is the foremost leader that is specialized in the production of authentic palet Breton.

As plain butter biscuits, they are sold in France as packed and in bulk. Nowadays, French companies create and sell chocolate palets Breton with chocolate chips, palets coated with milk or dark chocolate, too.

Sable Breton vs. palet Breton

Both sable Breton and palet Breton are of French origin; each of them is buttery and salty. Yes, salt is added to these treats to accentuate their sweetness and help enhance the flavors.

But there is some difference between them. Sable Breton ("sablé" means "sand" in French) are thin and shiny shortbread-like cookies with a sandy texture. Palet Breton (means "Breton puck") is a thick and airy biscuit.

Still, nowadays, the confusion between Breton cookies and biscuits Breton exists. In any way, they both are the most popular French cookies/biscuits.

Pasty rings to make authentic palet Breton

To make the authentic palet Breton with the regular contours, you need to use special Breton biscuit rings designed by the French company Gobel. They are small metal circles measured 2 ⅓ inches/6 cm in diameter and ½ inches/1.2cm high. The rings are sold as a set of six.

Can you make palet Breton without special pastry rings? Yes, use your favorite muffin pan. The walls of a muffin tin are not perfectly vertical, but it does the job. You will get the same delicious result.

Why palet Breton recipe works

• The recipe calls for a few ingredients and is easy to make.
• These French butter biscuits are a new baking alternative to use your favorite muffin mold.
• Palet Breton are kids' favorites due to their crispiness.
• The biscuits are perfect for the afternoon tea or coffeetime.
• Bite-sized treats make a beautiful edible gift and are an excellent food idea at parties.

Ingredients

The proportion of these French butter biscuits' ingredients is very crucial in getting the best baking result. Please, do not change the amount of ingredients.

Egg yoks: use egg yolks from large eggs.

Butter: this is a star of the recipe! The recipe calls for the softened unsalted butter; if you use salted butter, decrease the amount of salt in the recipe. I recommend using a top-quality butter with a high-fat content (European-style butter) since the flavor and the taste of these biscuits depend on the quality of butter.

Sugar: the palets Breton require powdered (icing) sugar.

Flour: all-purpose flour is needed for this recipe; although, feel free to replace half of the all-purpose flour with buckwheat flour.

Salt: use regular salt or fleur de sel for the authentic taste.

Baking powder: to avoid a tinny taste, use aluminum-free baking powder.

How to make palet Breton step by step

Place egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk them until whitish (photo 1). Add the softened butter and beat until homogeneous (photo 2).

Using a flour sifter, sift flour, salt, and baking powder, add to the butter mixture and mix to get the dough but do not overmix (photo 3).

Wrap the dough in a plastic film and refrigerate it for three to four hours.

Preheat oven to 300 F/150 C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange pastry rings on it. Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out between two sheets of parchment to a thickness of about ⅔ inches/1.5 cm.

Using a cookie cutter of about 2 inches/5 cm in diameter, cut the dough into small disks (photo 4).

Place the dough disks in the un-buttered pastry rings (photo 5) or the cavities of a muffin pan.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the biscuits from the oven and let them cool a bit in the rings or the muffin tin. Then carefully remove biscuits from the rings by pushing them from the bottom (photo 6).

In the case of the muffin mold, turn it out and gently remove the biscuits. Use the tip of a knife to facilitate the removal of palets if needed.

Expert tips

1. Since the dough is quite sticky, work as fast as you can. If the dough softens at any step, bring it to the fridge (or even freezer) for a few minutes to firm it up.
2. To help coax dough disks from the parchment paper after rolling the dough, use a pastry scraper or metal spatula.
3. As an alternative to rolling the dough with a rolling pin between two sheets of parchment, roll the dough out as a cylinder of 2 inches/5 cm in diameter, wrap it in a plastic film, refrigerate and then cut in equal disks of about ⅓ inches/1.5 cm.
4. The biscuits are extremely crumbly when hot. Allow them to cool down in their pastry rings (or a muffin mold) before removing them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is European-style butter?

European-style butter (it is the Irish butter that is sold in the States under the brand name Kerrygold) has a little less water, a softer texture and a higher butterfat content than regular American butter.

That is why the European butter is a preferred butter for baking: it gives the flavor and keeps the pastries from spreading while baking. Read more about what is the difference between European and American butter.

How to make gluten-free palet Breton

As per madam Mercotte, replace all-purpose flour with buckwheat flour and follow the same recipe.

How to store palet Breton

They are usually stored in metal boxes or other airtight containers for an extended period. To keep the biscuits dry, they must be kept away from moisture.

How to serve palet Breton

Enjoy these cute biscuits on their own, with a cup of tea or coffee. They also go perfectly with ice creams.

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The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.

The recipe was originally published on April 17, 2018. It has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.