Florentine Cookies Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with a silicone liner (such as Silpat®).
• Place almonds into the bowl of a food processor; alternate pulsing and running at full speed every few seconds until finely chopped and crumblike. Be careful not to go too far; you don't want them too fine and pasty.
• Combine butter, brown sugar, and honey in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir a few times and cook until melted and dissolved. Bring to a boil, then carefully remove from the heat.
• Add vanilla extract, salt, and flour, and whisk until smooth. Add chopped almonds and mix with a spatula until everything is combined.
• Drop eight uniformly sized, rounded spoonfuls of batter (each about 2 teaspoons, or 15 grams) onto the prepared sheet. Fine-tune the cookie shapes and make sure they are evenly spaced.
• Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake until golden brown and a bit darker around the outsides, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
• Remove from the oven and slide the silicone liner off the baking sheet and directly onto the countertop. Allow to sit until cool and crisp, 3 to 5 minutes, then gently peel cookies off the liner. Repeat to bake remaining batches.
• Spread melted chocolate over the flat side of one cookie. Place a second cookie, flat-side down, on top to make a sandwich and press very gently to seal. Repeat to form remaining cookies. Let sit until chocolate has firmed up, about 30 minutes.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 325 degrees. Combine honey, sugar, and butter in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until the temperature reaches 238 degrees (the soft-ball stage) on a candy thermometer. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine nuts, dried fruit, flour, and spices.
• Pour honey-sugar mixture over contents in large bowl, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine. When cool enough to handle, form into 1-inch balls with hands coated with vegetable shortening to prevent sticking. Place on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat mat or parchment paper, and flatten into balls with the palm of your hand. Bake until bubbled on top, about 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.
• Meanwhile, melt the chocolate: In the top of a double boiler or in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stir chocolate with a spatula until smooth. Working quickly, using a small offset spatula, spread a thick layer of chocolate on the back of each cooled cookie. Place cookies, chocolate side up, on a wire rack until chocolate is hardened. Store between layers of parchment paper in an airtight container.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line 2 cookie sheets with aluminum foil.
• Melt butter in a large saucepan. Remove from heat and mix in oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt until well combined. Drop by level teaspoonfuls 3 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. Spread cookies out thin with a rubber spatula.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheets.
• Meanwhile, place chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Stir frequently, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula to avoid scorching, until chocolate is melted and smooth, about 5 minutes.
• Peel foil from cookies. Spread melted chocolate on 1/2 of the cookies. Top with the remaining cookies.

Steps:

• Prepare a grill for indirect heat. If using a charcoal grill, build the hot coals on one side only. If using a gas grill, heat one side only to medium-high heat.
• Add the sugar, butter, cream and honey to a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over direct heat. Whisk until the sugar dissolves.
• Stir together the crushed almonds, flour, salt and orange zest in a large bowl, then pour into the sugar mixture and mix to combine. Allow the mixture to cool, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. (The batter can be chilled overnight if you have the time.)
• Invert a cast-iron skillet over direct heat and place a piece of foil on it. Spoon teaspoon-sized amounts of batter onto the skillet, pressing out so the almonds are distributed evenly. Move the skillet over indirect heat and bake until the cookies bubble and caramelize, about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from the grill and place the foil on a cutting board to allow the cookies to cool faster.
• Once cool, gently peel the cookies off the foil and serve!
• (Alternatively, you can bake the cookies on aluminum foil-lined baking sheets in a 350 degrees F oven until they bubble and caramelize, 10 to 12 minutes.)

Steps:

• Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
• Pulse the almonds in a food processor until finely chopped, but not pasty. Stir together the nuts, flour, zest and salt in a large bowl.
• Put the sugar, cream, corn syrup and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a rolling boil and sugar is completely dissolved. Continue to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, then pour mixture into almond mixture and stir just to combine. Set aside until cool enough to handle, 30 minutes.
• Scoop rounded teaspoons (for 3-inch cookies) or rounded tablespoons (for 6-inch cookies) of batter and roll into balls. Place on prepared baking sheet, leaving about 3 to 4 inches between each cookie since they spread.
• Bake 1 pan at a time, until the cookies are thin and an even golden brown color throughout, rotating pans halfway through baking time, about 10 to 11 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve.
• Optional chocolate topping: Put the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with 1 inch or so of water to a very low simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching, the water. Stir the chocolate occasionally until melted and smooth. (Alternatively, put the chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Melt at 50 percent power in the microwave until soft, about 1 minute. Stir, and continue heat until completely melted, about 1 to 2 minutes more.)
• For sandwiches: Drop about 1/2 teaspoon chocolate onto on the flat side of half of the cookies and press together with remaining halves. Return to rack and let chocolate set.
• For chocolate decor: Drizzle melted chocolate over Florentines as desired. Set aside at room temperature until chocolate is set.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a food processor, pulse the pecans until they resemble fine crumbs. Be careful not to over grind and create a paste. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and the corn syrup. Bring to boil. Remove from the heat and add the ground pecans, and flour. Mix well. Drop teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes or until brown around the edges and lace-like in appearance. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire rack. Place chocolate chips in a small plastic bag. Immerse the bag into barely simmering water until the chips melt. Once the chips are melted, snip a small corner off the bag. Pipe a chocolate squiggle onto each cookie. Allow chocolate to harden before storing cookies.
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Steps:

• Preheat a convection oven to 325 degrees F, or preheat a regular oven to 350 degrees.
• Melt the butter in a medium-size heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the corn syrup and sugar to the pan, increase the heat to medium, and cook until the syrup is simmering.
• Meanwhile, mix the almonds and flour in a small bowl, and then add them to the simmering syrup. Stir with a wooden spoon until well blended, and then remove from heat.
• Pour mixture into bowl, using a rubber spatula to scrape, and then let cool.
• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Form into 1-ounce balls for large cookies or 1/2-ounce balls for small cookies, placing them on the parchment paper 3 inches apart from each other, as they will spread drastically. Bake until just starting to turn golden brown, about 5 to 8 minutes. The baking time will vary depending on what size the cookies are.
• As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, shape them into cups by molding each cookie around the bottom of a small cup or glass. They must still be warm to hold this shape.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a heavy saucepan, bring butter, sugar, honey, and cream to a rolling boil. Stir in almonds and oats and cook over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, or until batter thickens slightly and smells of toasted almonds. Take mixture off heat and let cool. Place 12 (2 1/2-inch) ring molds on a sheet pan lined with parchment or aluminum foil. Spray each ring liberally with non-stick spray. Spoon cooled batter into each ring mold (approximately 2 tablespoons). Bake for approximately 12 to 15 minutes or golden brown around the edges. Melt chocolate chips while allowing cookies to cool, and finish by dipping cookies in melted chocolate.

Steps:

• Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper. Stir the almonds, flour and zest in a medium bowl. Stir the sugar, butter, cream, and honey in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the almond mixture. Cool the batter for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Using 2 teaspoons of batter for each cookie, spoon 8 mounds of the batter onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing evenly apart (the cookies will spread). Flatten the batter slightly with your finger.
• Bake the cookies until they are lacy and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Gently slide the parchment paper with the cookies onto a rack and cool completely. Transfer the cookies to paper towels. Repeat with the remaining batter, lining the baking sheets with clean parchment for each batch. (The cookies can be made up to this point 2 months ahead. Cool completely, then store airtight in the freezer. Defrost before continuing.)
• Stir the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. Spread the melted chocolate over the bottom of 1 cookie. Top with a second cookie, bottom side down, pressing lightly to adhere. Repeat with the remaining cookies and chocolate.

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange the racks to divide the oven into thirds. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
• Place the almonds, flour, and zest in a medium bowl and toss with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to combine; set aside.
• Place the sugar, butter, corn syrup, cream, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat, stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat, add the almond mixture, and stir to combine.
• Drop heaping teaspoons of the batter at least 3 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets, 6 per sheet. Using a rubber spatula, pat the batter out into 2-inch-wide circles, spreading the almonds into an even single layer.
• Place both sheets in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom and bake until the florentines are light golden brown around the edges, about 4 to 5 minutes more. Remove from the oven to wire racks and let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes. Carefully remove the florentines from the baking sheets with a thin metal spatula, transfer to the wire racks, and cool completely. Repeat with the remaining batter-you can reuse the baking sheets and parchment while still warm. Reserve the parchment sheets for drizzling the chocolate over the cooled cookies, if using.
• 6Place the cooled cookies on the reserved parchment sheets. Melt the chocolate chips in a small saucepan over low heat. (Alternatively, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in short increments to avoid burning the chocolate.) Dip a fork into the chocolate and drizzle it over the florentines in a zigzag pattern. Let the cookies sit until the chocolate has set, about 30 minutes. Store the florentines in an airtight container for up to 5 days.