Mix just 5 quality basic ingredients together and what do you get? French butter cookies or Palets Bretons, the famous thick biscuits from Brittany using salted butter. So quick and simple to make - these golden classics are also used as a base for many kinds of French pastries.
I finally got around to making these last night, Jill, and honestly, what took me so long? They were perfect with tea ... so easy and delicious! Another great recipe from you!
Betty
What is the Most Popular Cookie in France?
The most popular cookie in France is the traditional French butter cookie, known as Palets Bretons from Brittany. These delicious salted cookies (or biscuits, as we say in the UK and France) are a staple in French homes.
You won’t often find them in Parisian pâtisseries like macarons, but in Brittany's bakeries, they're everywhere. Otherwise, you'll find them easily in supermarket cookie aisles across France.
That said, once you bake these French butter cookies at home, you'll never want the packaged brands again. Homemade Palets Bretons are simply irresistible.
A Short History of French Butter Cookies
The traditional French butter cookie has a proud history in Brittany. The original Palet Breton was created in 1920 by Alexis Le Villain at Traou Mad® in Pont Aven. It's a busy, artistic town; when we've been in summer, there are queues for them in all the local bakeries!
Other great authentic brands include the Biscuiterie des Vénètes from the Morbihan, Brittany. Their cookies stand out with less sugar, more salt, and deep, buttery flavour.
Flying to Paris? You might have nibbled a La Mère Poulard butter cookie – often tucked into French airline snack packs!
What's the Difference Between Sablés and Palets Bretons?
Both Sablés Bretons and Palets Bretons come from Brittany.
Both are salted French butter cookies, rich in good butter and egg yolks, made with plain flour. But the difference comes down to thickness, texture, and a different baking method:
- Sablés Bretons are thin and delicate. Their surface shines thanks to an egg yolk glaze, often finished with a criss-cross pattern.
They crumble beautifully — "sablé" means sand in French, describing their melt-in-the-mouth texture.
Traditional sablés don't use baking powder, keeping them flat and tender. - Palets Bretons are thicker (around 1.5cm) and lighter inside, with little air holes thanks to baking powder. Their look is rustic - like the iron disks (palets) from the Breton game Le Palet Breton, hence why they got their name.
With their crispy outside and tender middle, Palets Bretons are perfect on their own or used as a base for strawberry cakes and lemon tarts in French pâtisseries.
Want to make Sablés Bretons instead?
Use this same recipe. Just roll the dough thinner, skip the baking powder, and bake for less time.
Best Butter for Traditional French Butter Cookies?
The secret to great traditional French butter cookies is, of course, the butter.
And not just any butter — authentic Palets Bretons use a generous amount (about 20%) of high-quality salted butter from Brittany, on France’s North Coast.
It’s the rich, salty-sweet flavour from this butter that makes them so addictive. Just try stopping at one!
In France, we use salted butter with 82% butterfat and less moisture - essential for the light texture and authentic taste.
If you can find French or European butter, use it for the best results.
Can’t find it?
Use the best unsalted butter you can and add a good pinch of sea salt.
For the closest flavour, choose fleur de sel from the Guérande, or use Maldon salt flakes or Celtic sea salt as good alternatives.
Please avoid margarine or low-fat spreads — they won’t give you the same buttery, melt-in-the-mouth result.
French Butter Cookies - Traditional Ingredients
Palets Bretons need just a few simple ingredients:
- Good-quality salted butter
- Egg yolks
- Sugar
- Plain (all-purpose) flour
- Baking powder
Important note:
Palets Bretons don't contain buckwheat flour.
They’re often confused with Galettes Bretonnes, the famous savoury buckwheat crêpes from Brittany. Different treat, different texture!
Love a savoury twist on buttery cookies?
Try my easy mini cheese biscuits (sablés au fromage) for something a little different.
How to Make French Butter Cookies (Palets Bretons)
Many French chefs recommend rolling out the dough between two baking sheets, cutting circles with a cookie cutter, then baking inside pastry rings.
That’s great for pâtisseries — but at home? Who has a drawer full of pastry rings!
It’s much quicker and easier to roll the dough into a sausage shape and slice it into rounds.
I bake Palets Bretons in muffin moulds, which give the cookies their thick, classic shape.
This simple method keeps the butter cookies uniform and beautifully golden.
This recipe makes about 10 large French butter cookies (around 156 calories each).
Prefer mini versions? Use mini muffin moulds — or double the recipe for more if you like the bigger size.
The dough freezes well too. Shape it into a sausage, wrap, and freeze for up to a month.
When ready, defrost overnight in the fridge, then slice and bake as needed.
Step-by-Step for Palets Bretons
- Ensure your butter is at room temperature.
- Mix all the ingredients together to form a soft, buttery dough.
- Roll the dough into a sausage shape, roughly the diameter of your muffin moulds.
- Chill for at least 30 minutes to firm up.
- Slice and press each round gently into unbuttered muffin moulds.
- Bake at 180°C (350°F) for about 20 minutes, until golden.
- Leave to cool slightly, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Watch Your Oven: Avoid 'Bitter' Biscuits
Top tip when baking French butter cookies: don’t over-bake them!
You know your oven best — recipe temperatures are just a guide.
After about 15 minutes, check your Palets Bretons.
If they’re already golden, they’re done.
Not sure about your oven?
Use an oven thermometer to check if it’s running hot or cool. It’s a small investment that makes a huge difference.
If your cookies turn dark brown, they’re over-baked.
They'll lose that buttery, delicate flavour and start tasting bitter.
(Trust me — I watched someone do this on video and it wasn't the same at all.)
At that point, they’re no longer French butter cookies... they’re Bitter Biscuits!
How to Serve Buttery Palets Bretons Biscuits
I know you may be tempted to add vanilla, cinnamon, or lemon zest – but there’s nothing to beat Palets Bretons plain with tea or coffee for Teatime or French goûter. That way you can enjoy their irresistible, salty and buttery addictiveness.
These salty buttery biscuits pair beautifully with caramel - well, anything in Brittany is covered in salted caramel! So serve them plain with:
- caramel desserts such as crème caramel or
- enjoy with rice pudding topped with crunchy nougatine.
- Top them with the salted caramel filling and a macaron shell from my salted caramel macarons recipe - as I've seen some wonderful patisseries do in Brittany.
French Butter Cookies as a Pastry Base
Palets Bretons are also a popular French butter cookie base for many cakes or pastries in Parisian pâtisseries. So this recipe is handy to have. Use as a base for many elegant desserts, such as:
- Pipe out some vanilla or pistachio pastry cream or Chantilly cream.
Then top with a chocolate, edible flowers or strawberries or cherries; - Pipe out a little dark chocolate mousse and top with crunchy yet soft caramel nougatine - I saw this in a Parisian pâtisserie;
- orange cheesecake with cinnamon.
- Top with a little white chocolate mousse with rose and top with rose petals and raspberries.
What to Make with the Leftover Egg Whites?
As this recipe uses 2 egg yolks, save the leftover egg whites to make more quick and easy French cookies later. In the meantime, check out my recipe video below.
The egg whites can keep sealed in a jar in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen.
Here are some egg white recipes to use up the leftover 2 whites:
- financier teacakes
- coconut macaroons (rochers coco)
- tuiles
French Butter Cookies (Palets Bretons)
Ingredients
- 90 g (3oz/½ cup) butter (unsalted)* at room temperature
- 75 g (2.5oz/ ⅓ cup) sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt (fleur de sel) omit if using good quality French salted butter
- 2 egg yolks organic
- 125 g (4oz/1 cup) Plain flour (all-purpose)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- Using a mixer, beat together the softened butter, sugar and salt until light and creamy. Mix in the egg yolks then the flour and baking powder until a lovely soft dough forms.(If you don’t have a mixer or electric whisk, this can be done by hand in a large bowl).
- Using the palm of your hands, roll the dough back and forward to create a sausage shape until the diameter is the size of your moulds (here I used mini muffin silicone moulds @5cm diameter). Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to set the sausage shape.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180°C/360°F/160°C fan (gas mark 4)
- Cut disks of 1.5cm (¾ inch) and press them into the muffin moulds (unbuttered – there’s enough butter in the biscuits!)
- Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Leave to cool in the moulds then turn them out on to a baking rack, pretty side up.
Video
Notes
Also delicious topped with chocolate mousse, Chantilly cream and strawberries. Measures: Please note that all my recipes are best made using digital kitchen scales in precise metric grams. Both ounces (and cups) are given as a guide.
This recipe was originally published 10 April 2016. Now updated to include its accompanying recipe video.
Val Copestake
The Palets Breton is my go-to biscuit recipe. It’s a family favourite and I make it regularly for my quilting group. They love it. I use fleur de sel and salted french butter if I can get it. ( Very naughty! Extra salt) and the added bonus——- egg whites for macarons! I freeze mine until I’m ready to use them. Merci Jill x
Jill Colonna
Thrilled to hear this Val and wish I could join in your quilting group. Sounds like a delicious get-together! Thanks so much for taking the time to share this - and here's to your macaron-making!
Camille
J’adore! Delicieux avec le thé ou un café. Recette simple, avec moins de jaunes d’oeuf que d’autres.
Jill Colonna
Merci beaucoup, Camille. je suis ravie que cette recette vous plaise. Bon dimanche !
Lisa
Hi there,
How long do these biscuits last once baked? Are they like shortbread biscuits that are better over time, or best eaten soon after baking? I’m wondering if I can make them the night before serving for a breakfast treat ?
Jill Colonna
Hello Lisa,
Thanks for this question as I'll answer this in the post. Yes, they are great just after baking and can keep for about 5 days stored in an airtight tin box, for example. So you can have them for breakfast next morning no problem. In France we don't eat them for breakfast - so now I'm thinking I'll try them for a change!
Let me know what you think of the recipe.
Jill
Meg
Super easy but so delicious! My only problem is that I could have easily eaten them all myself. Highly recommend!
Jill Colonna
Too funny Meg. Thanks for the delicious feedback x
Max
I'd seen your brilliant Youtube video on this one and now with this great recipe I will get on doing it ASAP
thank you Jill Colonna
A.A
what would be the weight of the egg yolks?
Jill Colonna
The weight for one regular medium egg yolk is 18 grams so 36g for 2 egg yolks. I haven't given the precise amount in grams here because it's ok if your eggs are a little bigger by a few grams out. Hope this helps and apologies for the late response. I have been offline a few days but back again!
A.A
No worries
thank you for the response. ?
Thomasina
I have tasted these in Brittany and did wonder how they were made so I'm so happy to have found your recipe. I love your ideas for making them so attractive.
Jill Colonna
So thrilled you like this. I can't believe how many years I bought them in France and thought they were difficult to make when they're that easy!
Betty
I finally got around to making these last night, Jill, and honestly, what took me so long? They were perfect with tea and I had them ready when Victor came in from shoveling the big snow we got. They were so easy and delicious! Another great recipe from you! Bravo!! xo
Jill Colonna
I'm so glad you enjoy them Betty and see how easy they are too! Stay cosy x
Manjiri C
How delicious these look Jill, I can't stop looking at all your lovely photos with such a huge variety of toppings! I would love to have these with some fresh cream and strawberry topping ummmm
Jill Colonna
Thrilled to hear you're tempted to make them, Manjiri. Thanks for popping in for tea!
Vikkie Lee
These look so delicious!! Love eating food in France - have so many memories 😀
Jill Colonna
Thanks, Vikkie - well let's hope that these bring back your memories of France too!
Christophe Blanchut
Great recipe. It works wonders as a base for a lemon pie with or without meringue.
Jill Colonna
Thanks, Christophe. Of course! I forgot lemon pie - this would be fantastic as a base. Thanks for adding your delicious thoughts!
Christina
They look absolutely brilliant, and I can almost taste that French butter in them! OMG, if only I could use such good French butter in all my baking! Kerrygold will have to do! Have to try these, soon! Thanks for another fab recipe!
Jill Colonna
Thanks Christina - good to know that Kerrygold is a good bet in the USA.
Jenny
Thanks for posting this recipe Jill - we have used your previous one and love it. Works every time and quick to make a batch. It's a while since we made them so thanks for the reminder - I'll bake them tomorrow or the kids will. Great photos. Happy Easter to you!
Jill Colonna
Thanks Jenny - glad you'll have a printable recipe for the family now. Happy Easter to you too and enjoy them.