Florentines I Recipes

FLORENTINE COOKIES

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.

FLORENTINES

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.

FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas 4 and line 2 baking sheets with baking paper.
• Finely chop the dried fruit or peel.
• Place a small saucepan over a low heat and add the sugar, butter and flour, stirring to combine. Keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then gradually add the crème fraîche.
• Take off the heat and stir in the flaked almonds, seeds and dried fruit or peel.
• While it's still warm, use teaspoons to drop little mounds of mixture onto the baking sheets, leaving a few centimetres between each one to allow them room to spread.
• Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden. Leave to cool a little on the sheet before cooling on a rack.
• Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, then, using a spoon, drizzle it over the florentines.
• Let the chocolate set completely, before transferring the biscuits to boxes, or wrapping in greaseproof paper and ribbons.

FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C/gas 4. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a small saucepan over a low heat, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and whisk in the flour then add the cherries, flaked almonds, pistachios and orange zest.
• Scoop 10 flat tbsp of the mixture onto the baking sheets, leaving room for them to spread. You will need to do these in batches. Bake for 10 mins until golden. Leave to cool for 2 mins until firm enough to lift onto a wire rack. Cool completely. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
• Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a simmering saucepan of water or in the microwave in 30 second bursts. Turn the florentines over on the wire rack. Spoon chocolate onto the base of each florentine and gently spread to the edges. When the chocolate is firm enough to hold its shape, use a fork to draw wavy lines across the chocolate. Leave to set and then store in an airtight container.

FLORENTINES

Steps:

• In a saucepan, mix together 1/2 cup each of heavy cream and sugar and 3 tablespoons butter and bring the mixture to a boil. Remove it from the heat and stir in 1 1/4 cups finely chopped almonds, 3/4 cup finely chopped candied orange peel, and 1/3 cup flour. Drop the batter from a tablespoon into mounds about 3 inches apart on oiled and lightly floured cookie sheets and flatten each cookie with a wet spatula. Bake the cookies in a moderate oven (350°F) for about 10 minutes. Remove them from the oven and let them stand for about 5 minutes. Remove the cookies to a wire rack, let them cool completely, and spread them with chocolate glaze. Chill them.
• Chocolate Glaze
• Melt 1 ounce each of unsweetened chocolate and sweet cooking chocolate over simmering water. Add 2 tablespoons butter and 1 teaspoon honey and stir the glaze until the butter is melted. For an easier glaze, use melted bittersweet chocolate.

NIGELLA'S FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Melt the butter at a low heat in a medium sized pan.
• Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.
• Beat in the flour as if making a white sauce.
• Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream. Beat until smooth, then stir in the fruit and nuts.
• Place teaspoonfuls, well spaced apart, on baking trays lined with baking paper. The mixture will spread.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for 10 minutes. The florentines are done when the edges have turned a golden brown.
• Leave to cool for a couple of minutes, reshaping them into rounds quickly if needed, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of nearly boiling water.
• Spread the melted chocolate over the backs of the Florentines with a palette knife or back of a spoon. Place chocolate side up onto a sheet of baking paper and leave to set.

FLORENTINES I

Steps:

• Mix flour, soda and salt. Cream 1/4 cup butter or margarine. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add corn syrup and egg. Blend well.
• Stir in flour mixture, coconut and vanilla. Drop by half teaspoonfuls onto greased backing sheets, leaving 2 inches between. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) about 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute, remove quickly and finish cooling on racks (if wafer hardens, return briefly to oven).
• Melt chocolate and 1 tablespoon butter in pan over very low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Drizzle over cookies. Enjoy!

FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets with shortening and dust with flour.
• Stir cream and sugar together in a bowl. Stir in orange peel, flour, and almonds until combined. Drop batter in teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, keeping each cookie well apart from each other.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack, about 30 minutes.
• Spread bottoms of cooled cookies with melted chocolate using a spatula, or spear cookies on a fork and dip bottoms into chocolate. Let dry, bottoms-up, on waxed paper.

MARY'S FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line three baking trays with baking parchment or silicon sheets.
• Measure the butter, sugar and syrup into a small pan and heat gently until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and add the flour, chopped cranberries or cherries, candied peel and nuts to the pan. Stir well to mix.
• Make 18 florentines by spooning six teaspoonfuls of the mixture on to each of the prepared baking trays, leaving plenty of room for them to spread during cooking.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden-brown. Leave the florentines to cool before lifting onto a cooling rack using a palette knife (if the florentines have been baked on greased baking trays, then allow them to harden for a few moments only before lifting onto cooling racks to cool completely). If the florentines become too hard to remove, then pop them back into the oven for a few minutes to allow them to soften.
• Set a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, without letting the bowl touch the water. Temper the chocolate by breaking half of the chocolate into the bowl. Stir until the chocolate reaches a melting temperature of 53C/127F. Meanwhile, finely chop or grate the remaining chocolate.
• Carefully remove the bowl from the pan, add the rest of the chocolate and stir gently until the chocolate has cooled to 26C/79F.
• Spread a little melted chocolate over the flat base of each florentine and leave to cool slightly before marking a zigzag in the chocolate with a fork. Leave to set, chocolate side up on a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.

FLORENTINES (ITALY)

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.