Le Bisse

Le Bisse are elegant little S-shaped cookies from the French baking tradition. The dough is beautifully simple: eggs beaten with sugar until frothy, melted butter, lemon zest, flour, and a pinch of salt. Nothing more.

Beating the eggs and sugar until pale and frothy is what gives these cookies their delicate texture. That aeration creates lift since there’s no baking powder in the dough. Skip this step or rush it, and the cookies come out dense and heavy.

After an hour of chilling, roll small pieces of dough into ropes about half an inch thick and 5 inches long, then curve them into S shapes. The two-stage bake starts at a high temperature to set the shape quickly, then drops to finish baking them golden and crisp throughout.

Kitchen Tips

• Keep the rolled dough ropes a consistent thickness. Thin spots brown faster and can burn while the thicker parts are still pale.
• Chill the dough fully. Warm dough is sticky and impossible to roll into clean ropes.
• Cool slightly on the sheet before transferring. These are fragile when hot and will crack if moved too soon.
• Store in an airtight tin. They stay crisp for up to a week and actually improve in flavor after a day.

Variations

• Orange Le Bisse: Swap the lemon zest for orange zest and add a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• Almond crunch: Roll the S-shaped dough in sliced almonds before baking for a nutty, textured exterior.