Florentine Love Knot Cookies Recipes

FLORENTINE COOKIES

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.

LACE COOKIES (FLORENTINE COOKIES)

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.

LOVE KNOT COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Fit 2 more baking sheets with a wire rack.
• For the dough: In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the granulated sugar, sour cream and vegetable oil on medium-low speed. Add the egg, vanilla extract and lemon oil and mix until combined. On low speed, add in the flour and baking powder and mix until a dough forms.
• Remove the dough from the bowl onto a clean work surface dusted with flour. Knead until the dough forms a smooth ball. Using a bench scraper, cut the dough in quarters. Working with one quarter at a time, roll the dough into a snake about 1-inch thick. Using the bench scraper, cut the snake into 8 even pieces. Take one of the smaller pieces and roll into a snake again so that it is approximately 6 inches long. Knot the dough and place the prepared baking sheets with parchment. Repeat this process with the rest of the dough.
• Bake the love knots for 10 to 12 minutes; they should turn a light golden brown on the bottom and double in size. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
• For the glaze: While the cookies are cooling, put the powdered sugar into a large bowl. Add the milk a little at a time until you reach the proper consistency; you want the icing to coat a spoon. Once the proper consistency, add the vanilla extract and lemon zest.
• After the cookies have cooled completely, dip the entire cookie into the glaze. Hold the cookie over a bowl to allow excess glaze to run off and then place on the wire rack. Allow to dry for 30 seconds before sprinkling the tops with nonpareil sprinkles. Store the dried cookies in an airtight container to maintain freshness.

CENCI--ITALIAN BOW TIES

Steps:

• Make a fairly stiff dough with these ingredients, kneading it thoroughly, and adding more flour if it comes out too soft. Flour it and let it rest, covered, for about an hour.
• Then roll it out into an eighth-of-an-inch-thick sheet, and use a serrated pastry wheel to cut it into strips 4 inches long and two and one half inches wide. Make a cut down the middle of each cencio (so as to obtain two strips joined at the ends), twist the side strips without breaking them,
• Fry them in hot oil or lard, and dust them with confectioners sugar when they're cool. This recipe is sufficient to make a platterful. Should the dough have formed a crust while it sat, knead it again before you roll it out.
• My Mom also drizzles honey before the confectioners sugar.

ITALIAN FLORENTINE 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.)