Best Pecan Florentine Recipes

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.

FLORENTINE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a food processor, pulse the pecans until they resemble fine crumbs. Be careful not to over grind and create a paste. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and the corn syrup. Bring to boil. Remove from the heat and add the ground pecans, and flour. Mix well. Drop teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes or until brown around the edges and lace-like in appearance. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire rack. Place chocolate chips in a small plastic bag. Immerse the bag into barely simmering water until the chips melt. Once the chips are melted, snip a small corner off the bag. Pipe a chocolate squiggle onto each cookie. Allow chocolate to harden before storing cookies.
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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.

PECAN FLORENTINE

Steps:

• Line cookie sheet with foil. Grease cookie sheet and set aside.
• In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, melted butter or margarine, molasses and milk. Stir in the ground pecans or walnuts and flour.
• Drop level teaspoons of batter 5-inches apart onto a prepared baking sheet. (Bake only 3-5 cookies at a time). Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 5-6 minutes, or till bubbly and deep golden brown. Cool cookies on cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes, or till set. Quickly remove cookies from pan and cool on a rack. Repeat to bake remaining cookies.
• In a small heavy saucepan, melt chocolate or white baking bar over low heat. Drizzle over cookies.

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.

PECAN FLORENTINES

Steps:

• 1. To pulverize pecans put them in a food processor or blender and process until thoroughly ground with a DRY not pasty texture. Then measure out 3/4 of a cup.
• 2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with foil and lightly grease foil with a spray on oil.
• 3. Combine pecans and flour in a small bowl.
• 4. Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, butter, and milk in a medium saucepan. Put the saucepan over medium heat and stir until mixture comes to a light boil.
• 5. Remove from heat. Add flour and pecan mixture.
• 6. Drop batter by teaspoonfuls about 3 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until lacy and golden brown. Cookies will be soft when they are hot but become crisp as they cool.
• 7. I take the foil and slide it off to a flat heatproof surface to let the cookie cool completely. When cooled, peel the cookies off of the foil and set on wax paper.
• 8. Place chocolate chips in a zip top bag and place in a hot but not boiling pot of water for about 10 minutes. Being very careful not to let the bag get ANY water in it. Knead bag lightly to check that chips are completely melted.
• 9. Pat the bag dry and with scissors snip off a small hole in the corner of the bag. Squeeze melted chocolate over the cookies to decorate.
• 10. Let stand until chocolate is set.