On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month a ceasefire marked the end of the Great War (World War One).

Today we use the 11th of November to mark a day of Remembrance; known either as Remembrance Day, Poppy Day, Armistice Day or Veterans Day in different parts around the world and together remembering not only those who made the sacrifice in WW1 but also in more recent conflict. Today I’ve pulled this Poppy Sables post from my archives to commemorate.

This year I also was fortunate to be able to contribute the recipe to “Walkern’s Tried and Tasted - Sweet Treats” a fund-raising recipe booklet for the Walkern Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. Thank you to the lovely ladies who sent me a copy.

• Chocolate Sable Red Remembrance Poppies
• 255 grams of plain white flour
• 30 grams of quality dark cocoa powder
• 200 grams of cold butter, cubed
• 100 grams of icing sugar
• 2 free range egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 200 grams of rolling fondant icing
• red food colouring
• cornflour/ cornstarch to work the fondant
• 30 dark sweets, such as M&M’s/Pebbles/Smarties
• 30 toothpicks, or match sticks with the head broken off, etc. painted with green food colouring
• a small amount of icing / frosting to fix the fondant, toothpicks and sweets

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C
2. In a food processor place the flour, cocoa and cubed butter. Pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add the icing sugar, egg yolks and vanilla and process to a form smooth ball of dough.
4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. On a lightly floured board roll the dough out, marking and cutting 30 poppy shapes.
6. Transfer the poppies to a lined baking tray / sheet and bake for approximately 8 minutes.
7. Leave to cool on a cake rack.
8. Knead the fondant with enough red food colouring to create a good red poppy colour, adding some cornflour if the fondant becomes too sticky.
9. Roll out the fondant and cut 30 poppy shapes to fix to your sables
10. Fix the fondant, green toothpick and a sweet to each sable cookie with a little icing to form the poppies
11. Makes 30

Until next time, take care.