Two Bordier butters, doing two completely different jobs in one dessert. The semi-salted butter goes into a thick Breton shortbread, where the salt is the whole point. The yuzu butter goes into a lemon cream, folded in off the heat so it emulsifies rather than melts, which gives the cream a body and a citrus lift that lemon juice alone cannot manage. Crushed meringue on top. Plan for two hours, most of which is chilling time you spend elsewhere.
At a glance
- Difficulty: Medium
- Serves: 4
- Active time: About 40 minutes, plus 4 hours chilling the cream and 1 hour chilling the dough
- Cook: 20 minutes at 180°C (350°F)
- Key ingredient: Bordier Yuzu Butter, with Bordier Semi-Salted Butter in the shortbread
Why this works
Bordier's Yuzu Butter came out of a trip to Japan in 2006: yuzu in a lightly salted butter. Yuzu is not a stronger lemon. It is more floral and more bitter, with something closer to grapefruit behind it, and it fades fast when heated. That is why the butter goes into the lemon cream only once the mixture is lukewarm. Fold it in at that point and the fat emulsifies into the cooked egg and lemon base, giving the cream a glossy, spoonable body while the yuzu aroma survives intact. Boil it in and you would have a lemon cream that tastes vaguely of citrus and nothing more.
The shortbread is the other half of the argument. A sablé breton is defined by salted butter, and Bordier's demi-sel is semi-salted at 2.8% fine salt, which is enough to read clearly against 220 g of sugar. Dicing the butter finely before it goes into the mixer means it works through the flour without warming up, so the dough stays short rather than turning elastic. The bicarbonate gives the thick 1 cm slab lift, which is what separates a sablé breton from a flat cookie: you want a crumb inside, not uniform snap.
Ingredients
Two components, one shared bowl of sugar. Read the whole list before you start.
| Ingredient | Metric | US |
|---|---|---|
| Bordier Yuzu Butter | 175 g | About 6 oz |
| Bordier Semi-Salted Butter | 120 g | About 4.2 oz |
| Lemon juice | 20 cl | About 3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp |
| Powdered gelatin | 5 g | About 1 1/2 tsp |
| Eggs, plus egg yolks | 6 eggs and 4 yolks | 6 eggs and 4 yolks |
| Caster sugar | 220 g | About 7.8 oz, or 1 cup plus 2 tbsp |
| T45 flour | 180 g | About 6.3 oz, or 1 1/2 cups |
| Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) | 7 g | About 1 1/2 tsp |
| Meringues | 50 g | About 1.8 oz |
| Cream | 1 teaspoon | 1 teaspoon |
Method
Step 1: Make the lemon yuzu cream
Bring the lemon juice and the gelatine to the boil in a saucepan. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar, then pour in the boiled lemon juice, whisking briskly for 3 to 4 minutes. Return the cream to the bowl. Once it has cooled to lukewarm, fold in the finely diced Bordier Yuzu Butter. Chill the cream in the fridge for 4 hours.
Step 2: Make the Breton shortbread
In a mixer, combine the finely diced Bordier semi-salted butter with the sugar, flour and bicarbonate. Once the mixture is smooth, add the egg yolks. Roll the dough out between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 1 cm (about 3/8 inch) and chill it for 1 hour. Then heat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Cut the dough into four squares of 10 cm (about 4 inches) each and cut each square in half on the diagonal. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 20 minutes.
Step 3: Assemble when you are ready to serve
Once the shortbread triangles have cooled completely, whip the cream in a mixer for 3 to 4 minutes and transfer it to a piping bag with a small plain tip. Arrange the triangles, pipe dots of cream over them, and finish with pieces of meringue.
Tips from our kitchen
- Temper the hot juice into the eggs, do not dump it. Pour the boiling lemon juice into the whisked eggs in a thin stream while the whisk is already moving. Adding it all at once scrambles the eggs at the point of contact and leaves you straining out lumps.
- Lukewarm means about 40°C (105°F), not warm to the touch. This is the one temperature that matters. Too hot and the yuzu butter melts into an oily layer that will not come back together. Too cold and it stays in visible lumps. If you have a thermometer, use it here.
- Dice both butters small and keep them cold until the moment they go in. Bordier butter is denser than industrial butter, and a 2 cm chunk will still be solid long after the rest has incorporated. Cut it on a cold board and work fast.
- Do not overwork the shortbread dough. Stop the mixer as soon as it comes together after the yolks go in. Continuing past that develops gluten and you get a hard, tough biscuit instead of a crumbly one.
- Bake the triangles in rings if you have them. A 1 cm slab of sablé breton spreads as the butter melts. Baking each triangle inside a ring or a cut cake collar keeps the edges sharp. Without rings, expect a softer, more rustic shape.
- Assemble at the last minute. The cream will soften a baked shortbread within about half an hour, and the meringue starts to weep almost immediately. Everything can be made ahead, but the three parts should only meet on the plate.
How to serve it
One triangle per person is enough after a full meal, two if this is the whole point of the afternoon. Serve them on a plate rather than a board so the cream has somewhere to go, and put the extra meringue on the table. Black tea or a small glass of something cold and not sweet works better alongside than a dessert wine, since the cream is already doing the sweetness. For another way to use the same yuzu butter, look through the Maison Bordier collection.
Where to buy Churned Yuzu Butter by Bordier in the US
The French Pantry ships Bordier butter across the United States in insulated overnight packaging, straight from the workshop in Brittany.
- Churned Yuzu Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): yuzu in lightly salted butter, created in 2006 after a trip to Japan, and the butter that carries the cream in this recipe.
- Churned Salted Butter by Bordier (4.4 oz): the demi-sel at 2.8% fine salt, which is what the shortbread is built on.
For the rest of the range, including raspberry, seaweed and buckwheat, browse the Maison Bordier collection.
Frequently asked questions
How much Bordier butter should I buy for this?
Bordier blocks are 4.4 oz (125 g). The cream needs 175 g of yuzu butter, so buy two blocks and you will have about 75 g spare. The shortbread needs 120 g of semi-salted butter, which is just under one block. Two yuzu and one salted covers the whole recipe.
Can I substitute the yuzu butter?
You would be making a different dessert. Yuzu juice or zest stirred into plain butter does not emulsify the same way and it tastes sharper and thinner. If yuzu butter is out of stock, the lemon-olive oil butter is the nearest thing in the range for a citrus cream, and the result is rounder and less floral.
What is T45 flour, and what should I use instead?
T45 is the finest French milling grade, low in protein and low in ash. American all-purpose flour is the practical substitute here and works fine in a shortbread. If you want to get closer, use cake flour, or cut all-purpose with a spoonful of cornstarch.
How should I store Bordier butter?
In its paper, in the coldest part of the fridge. Cut off what a recipe needs and put the rest straight back. The flavoured butters are best used within a few weeks of opening, since the aromatics fade before the butter itself does.
Does Bordier butter need refrigeration?
Yes. Bordier butter is a fresh, hand-churned product and ships cold in insulated packaging. Move it to the fridge as soon as your box arrives.
Can I make the components ahead?
Yes, and you should. The cream needs its 4 hours in the fridge anyway and holds well overnight. The shortbread keeps for two days in an airtight tin. Whip the cream and assemble only when you are about to serve.
Related reading
- Bordier Butter: What It Is, Why Chefs Love It, and How to Use It
- How to Choose Your French Butter: A Buyer's Guide
- Madagascar Vanilla Butter Brioche
Recipe and photograph adapted from Maison Bordier, with thanks. The French Pantry is an authorized US retailer of Bordier butter.