St Michel French Butter Cookies Review
Author’s Note: Not a paid review. I have no affiliation with St Michel or Costco. Carry on, my buttery frens.
Like salty fireworks on your tongue.
That’s it. I’m moving to France. These cookies were so much better than I expected.
Essentially, this is an assortment of 4 different imported butter cookies in a fancy-pants tin. You get:
- 15 French Button Cookies
- 8 Milk Chocolate Caramel Tartlets
- 9 La Grande Galettes
- 12 Butter Petite Palmiers
So, 44 cookies. (Unless my math sucks. Sometimes my math sucks.) I bought mine on sale at Costco, but I’d been reading about them online for several years. Yes, these cookies are famous! More famous than I’ll ever be. Hmmph!
I thought I was going to love the chocolate tartlets and button cookies, and merely tolerate the plain butter cookies. But — plot twist — I adored the plain galettes and palmiers. In fact, I love them so much, the fancier chocolate cookies paled in comparison.
La Grande Galette
Let’s start with the MVP: La Grande Galette. These are the best cookies from the assortment. It’s the flavor. The butter flavor is incomparably rich. The texture reminds me of a delicate butter shortbread, but slightly crisper.
I also loved the rumble of saltiness — it was unlike any other salty cookie I’ve tried. There are small clumps of French Guérande sea salt grains mixed into the dough, so that you get tiny explosions of salty flavor as you crunch through the cookie. Like salty fireworks on your tongue. I do love salt, but I think anyone could enjoy this.
(Don’t worry, it’s nothing like the completely rude suckerpunches of saltiness I got from this unfortunate peach cobbler.)
Butter Petite Palmiers
Coming in second place, the Palmiers are absurdly delicious. Embarrassingly delicious. I kept putting the cookie tin away in my pantry, and then guiltily sneaking it back out for “one more” of those crunchy, addictive spirals. They are so good, I am nearly speechless. I don’t know what makes them clinically addictive, but it is powerful stuff.
These are somehow both light and rich cookies. The texture is airy, crunchy, and insubstantial, but with the decadent richness of butterfat. There’s a slight caramelized-sugar flavor that enhances the hearty buttery notes. Unlike the galettes, these are not especially salty, but they do have a sparkling sugar coating. But, even with the sugar layer, the sweetness is just an innuendo.
(My fingernails are dirty because I teach art. Leave me alone.)
Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tartlet
I thought these would be the undisputed stars of the show. However, they were just an entertaining side-act. The tartlets shells are pleasantly crisp, but not as exciting as the other cookies. They lack the deep butter flavor of their friends.
Essentially, there’s a pool of soft caramel under a layer of milk chocolate. The filling is nice — it’s creamy-smooth with a milky richness — but sweeter than I prefer. It reminded me of a Twix bar, with its pinky raised.
French Button Cookies
I’m eating one right now, just to make sure I provide accurate reporting. The cookie base is crisper than the other varieties, but lacks the intense butter flavor.
I do like the dark chocolate centers. They are velvety-smooth and intensely cocoa flavored. The chocolate tends to “disengage” from the cookie base. I put it in my belly fast enough that it did not matter.
The Cookie Tin
I’m a sucker for a nice tin. And this is a nice tin. It’s big enough to hold my dishwasher pods, so they can sit on my counter and look pretty, instead of hiding in shame under the kitchen sink. I once read a story about how flour companies started printing their flour sacks with pretty flower patterns during the Great Depression, when people had to make clothes from flour sacks. It would be cool if we could do that with our food packaging — make it pretty enough to be a functional object. I think this tin is cute, but I would think it was cuter with a decorative design that didn’t look commercial. Maybe add a removable label, so it can just be a gorgeous tin afterwards.
Ingredients in St Michel’s French Butter Cookies
See above for ingredients from the label. It’s nice to see flour, butter, and eggs as the main ingredients. I’m fairly impressed by the straightforward simplicity of this list.
These are imported from France. Fun fact: St Michel was founded in 1905 and still operates in the same seaside location where they started.
Nutrition Facts
A serving is 2.5 cookies (31 grams) and contains 160 calories. You get 8 grams of fat and 2 grams of protein. There’s a modest 9 grams of sugar, all of which are “added sugars.” Even with the distinct sea salt flavor, there is only 4% of your daily value of sodium per serving.
Price and Servings
I got this on sale at Costco for $8. The regular price is $11 for a 17.9 ounce tin. Since there are 17 servings per package, each serving costs 65 cents.
Shelf Life
The “best by” date on my tin allowed approximately 6 months to consume. Since the cookies are packed in small, sealed plastic pouches, I could eat them gradually over several months while they stay fresh. If my greedy stomach would allow it, anyway.
Dramatic Conclusion
The galettes and palmiers were “outstanding,” while the chocolate tartlets and button cookies were “good.” The variety is convenient for entertaining or gift-giving. Especially tea parties, where sophisticated textures and variety is the vibe.
The End.
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