Dried Fruit Nut Florentine Cookies Recipes

OATMEAL DRIED FRUIT COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the quick oats and dried fruit. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the unprepared cookie sheet.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

DRIED FRUIT-NUT FLORENTINE COOKIES

Steps:

• INSTRUCTIONS: For the pastry: Adjust rack in the center of oven; preheat oven to 350°. Set nearby a 10 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 1-inch jelly-roll pan. In a food processor bowl fitted with the steel blade, pulse the flour, sugar and salt to blend. Cut butter into 1/4-inch slices, scatter over the flour mixture and pulse with short on/off bursts just until a crumbly mass forms (similar to streusel). Scatter the dough over the pan and with fingertips press it together evenly to form the crust. (No need to press it up sides of pan.) Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until set and pale gold on top. Don't turn off the oven. For the topping: In a small bowl, toss together the almonds, pistachios, ginger, orange peel and cranberries and set aside. Pour the cream, honey, corn syrup and sugars into a 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan. Stir to combine, then add the butter. Stir over medium-low heat until the butter melts. Increase the heat to medium, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon or a silicon spatula (heat resistant to 500°) especially toward the end of cooking to prevent scorching. Cook just until the mixture reaches 235° (use a digital thermometer, if possible), about 8 to 10 minutes. The mixture will appear straw-colored. Remove from heat, and stir in nut-fruit mixture. Pour the thick, hot mixture on the partially baked pastry and spread it thinly. Bake for 7 minutes; then spread the now more liquid topping evenly over the pastry. Return to the oven and bake an additional 13 to 14 minutes, or until golden on top. Place the baking sheet on a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, cut 2-inch wide strips crosswise with a sharp-bladed knife to yield seven 2-by-10-inch strips. Cut across each strip diagonally in alternate directions to form triangular-shaped bars.

LACE COOKIES WITH CHOCOLATE (FLORENTINE COOKIES)

Steps:

• Place 1 1/2 cups of whole raw almonds into a food processor and pulse them on high speed until they chop up into fine crumbs. Then set them aside.
• In a medium saucepan add 1/2 cup unsalted butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/4 cup honey. Stir using a metal whisk.
• Once it comes to a boil, turn the heat off and remove the saucepan from the heat.
• Then stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 3 tbsp all-purpose flour.
• Now, use a spatula to mix in the finely chopped almonds. 
• Then scoop out about 1/2 tablespoon-sized scoops of the cookie dough onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat. If you don't have a silicone mat, parchment paper works too. But the mats will result in more even baking.
• Make sure to place each scoop of the lace cookie dough at least 3 inches apart. They will spread a lot when they bake.
• Now preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Then take each piece of cookie batter and roll it out to a ball, and place it half onto the baking sheet.
• Place each baking sheet in the center rack (one at a time). Then bake for 8 minutes making sure to turn once after 4 minutes.
• While the cookies are looking, melt 1 1/2 cups of semisweet chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl until fully melted. Always be sure to do this in intervals with stirring in between to avoid scorching the chocolate.
• Now take 1 Florentine cookie and gently spread a little bit of the melted chocolate on the back of it, then place a similar sized cookie on top. So you want the back of each cookie to sandwich the chocolate in between them.
• Let the chocolate set for about 1-2 hours before serving.

FLORENTINE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375*F.
• Line a cookie sheet with a baking mat or non-stick foil.
• In a small saucepan, melt butter.
• Add brown sugar, oatmeal, flour and milk and bring to a boil.
• Cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Remove from heat and add vanilla.
• Using a teaspoon (NOT TABLESPOON!), spoon out 5 teaspoons of cookie batter onto the cookie sheet in a zigzag pattern. You'll only be able to cook 5 cookies at a time, anymore and they will run together. The cookies will spread to 3-4 times their size when baking so they need plenty of room to spread.
• Bake for 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool completely on the cookie sheet before removing from the pan to a cooling rack.
• This recipe works best with 3 or 4 cookie sheets going at a time so that the cookies can fully cool (about 10 minutes per pan) while others are in the oven.
• Once cookies are cool, store in an AIRTIGHT container.
• Humidity and moisture will soften these and make them chewy.
• They should be paper thin and crispy when fully cooled.