My sister and I grew up baking. Almost from the time we learned to walk, we have been in the kitchen, learning the secrets and skills of our talented parents. My mom taught me to make delicious pies and cookies, and my dad is very much known for his amazing sourdough bread! Needless to say, my sister and I couldn't help but grow up and eventually spoil our families with many of the same mouth-watering baked goods and aromas we enjoyed as kids.
But we couldn't just stop there--we had to branch out and try some new things. My aunt had an old recipe book she used to use, which fell into my sister's hands. Though many of the recipes looked great, there were really no pictures to give much of an idea of what to expect. SO, my sister thought it would be fun to challenge me to try making some of these recipes. . ., of her choosing of course!
Which brings us to today's challenge: Florentines. I have never in my life made florentines, nor had I ever eaten any, so I only had a vague idea of what to expect.
The picture above is what I was finally able to achieve, though not without some obstacles along the way!
To begin with, here is the ingredient list:
½ cup sugar
⅓ cup heavy cream
⅓ cup honey
2 tablespoons butter
¼ cup candied orange peel, finely chopped or ground
1 ½ cups blanched, sliced almonds
3 tablespoons sifted flour
8 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
As I was looking through this list, I came across one thing that I definitely did not keep on hand and was not necessarily easy to come by: candied orange peels. As such, I decided it would be a fantastic idea to just make my own! (THAT little adventure to be posted later.)
Once I finally had my orange peels made, I could get on with making this little recipe. So here we go:
Step 1: Set the oven to 400 degrees. (No problem!)
Step 2: Grease baking sheets very well. (I chose to use parchment paper instead, which worked perfectly-no sticking!)
Step 3: Combine sugar, cream, honey, butter in a heavy saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved.
Step 4: Raise heat and boil without stirring until a ball forms when a bit of mixture is dropped into cold water, or until mixture registers 238 degrees on a candy thermometer. Cool slightly.
Note: I recommend using a good candy thermometer-digital if you have one. That made this step fairly easy.
Step 5: Stir in orange peel, nuts, and flour.
*Note: I forgot to take a picture of the stirred together mixture. It did stir together just fine into something of a "batter"
Step 6: Drop small rounds of batter on prepared cookie sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between cookies. Flatten each cookie with a fork dipped in milk.(This is important!!)
So....this is where I made my first mistake. On my first batch, I forgot 2 important things:
- ALWAYS do a test bake by baking just 2-3 cookies first to see how they do in the oven.
- I forgot to flatten the cookies as step 6 said, and remembered after they had been in the oven a minute or two.
Don't leave these in mounds-the almonds do NOT flatten and spread on their own! You need to flatten them with a fork, as shown above. The candy part of the cookie will spread, but the almond part will stay in a mound.
Here is what you DO NOT want you florentines to look like:
My florentines spread out a LOT and I also ended up leaving them in the oven too long, so they got quite overcooked!. Always keep a close eye on anything you have never baked before, since things rarely go as expected!
These cookies DO spread quite a bit, which is why the next step is a must:
Step 7: Bake 7 to 9 minutes, or until cookies are golden brown. They will spread in baking. Therefore, immediately upon removing them from the oven, pull each one back into shape with a round, greased 3 inch cutter. Using the cutter will insure their final roundness.
I was unable to get a picture of how much these spread since I had to work quickly. However, you can see on the above photo to the right just how much they spread and how much I had to pull them back into shape. I really wasn't much of a fan of this part! LOL!
The rest of the steps are much easier!!
Step 8: When cookies are firm, remove them from cookie sheet and finish cooling on a rack.
Step 9: Melt semisweet chocolate. Stir in shortening.
Step 9: Coat underside of each cookie thinly with melted chocolate. Place on parchment paper. Place in refrigerator long enough to set chocolate.
Once these are set, they can be easily removed from the parchment paper:
None of us were really all that crazy about these by themselves. They were just too sweet. We did, however, finally find the perfect way to eat them: with ICE CREAM! It was the perfect combination of creamy, crunchy and sweet.
Broken up in chunks like this-or smaller, with ice cream was just the perfect way to serve these!
I have to say, I learned a lot making these. Would I make them again? Maybe, but unlikely. Not because they didn't taste good, once I finally figured out what I was doing, but because it felt like a lot of hassle. Also, when it comes to cookies, I really prefer my cookies soft and chewy, not crunchy! And though the family enjoyed these, they aren't really getting eaten very quickly like other things I make.
So sis, here's your pics and my professional opinion! I think it's your turn to try them now! ;)
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