Florentine Cookies
Bejeweled with tart cherries and spicy ginger, these lacy ladies are all dressed and ready for tea. Crunchy, warming, and elegant, florentines are beautiful during the fall and winter holidays when you want to add a little snazziness to your dessert array.
Although it’s hard to disagree on anything with the queen of baking, Marry Berry, I’ve adapted her recipe for a more uniform and slightly easier bake. I found that baking the cookies on parchment resulted in too much spread and created very irregularly sized cookies. Instead, I make mine in muffin tins lined with baking cups. This keeps the cookies uniform without sacrificing their signature lacy quality. Additionally, some of Marry’s ingredients, like golden syrup and candied cherries, are a bit hard to come by or are just not my favorite. I’ve substituted these for ingredients more commonly found in the American pantry.
Equipment:
Food scale
Food thermometer
Double boiler
2 muffin tins
Parchment baking cups
Ingredients:
50g unsalted butter
50g sugar
50g corn syrup
50g all purpose flour
25g dried tart cherries, finely chopped
50g candied ginger, finely chopped
25g raw almonds, finely chopped
25g raw pecans, finely chopped
4oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350º F. Line 18 muffin cups with parchment baking cups.
Combine the flour, nuts, cherries, and ginger in a bowl.
Measure the syrup, sugar, and butter into a sauce pan. Heat over medium for just long enough to melt the butter and dissolve the sugar. Then remove the pan from heat.
Pour the flour mixture into the pan with the butter mixture, and stir to combine well. You will have a sticky paste with no remaining lumps of flour.
Divide the batter equally into the 18 prepared muffin tins.
Bake for 8-12 minutes. The outsides of each cookie should be golden. Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin tins before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the chocolate coating. Finely chop 2oz of chocolate and set aside. Temper the chocolate by melting 2oz in a double boiler or a glass bowl placed over a pot of gently simmering water. Heat until the chocolate reaches 127º F, and then remove from heat. Combine the melted and chopped chocolate, and stir until all of the chocolate is melted. Allow the chocolate to cool down so that it’s less runny and easier to coat the cookies (about 79º F).
Dip the bottom (flat side) of each cookie in the tempered chocolate. Using a small angled spatula or butter knife, gently swipe away any excess chocolate, and then invert the cookie so the chocolate coated side is facing up. Leave the florentines on a wire rack to allow the chocolate coating to set completely before serving.
Recipe adapted from Marry Berry’s Florentines Recipe
