These Florentine Biscuits are delightful treats perfect as desserts or as holiday homebaked gifts. The buttery and sweet dough topped with almonds, cherries, and a sweet buttery topping is finished with a coating of melted chocolate.
Nothing warms my heart like the coziness of holiday baking. I love how baking cookies, cakes and bread suddenly feels more special come Holiday time. The delicious baking aroma, a mug of hot chocolate and the cold, gloomy weather, are my favorite things. The perfect reason for staying in on a cold, cold night.
These Florentine biscuits always make it to my holiday baking list. They are festive with almonds and cherries on top, and the coating of dark chocolate takes these delicious biscuits to the next level.
These are no ordinary cookies. These are basically sweet pastries topped with a Florentine topping made of almonds and cherries fused together with a delicious mixture of melted butter and sugar.
Florentine Biscuits are made of three elements:
- The buttery and sweet biscuit
- The Florentine Topping: almonds and cherries set together with melted butter, honey and sugar
- The melted chocolate coating
Making Florentine Biscuits
- Make the Biscuits Dough-the dough has a texture similar to a shortbread crust, or tart crust. You start off by beating together the butter, sugar, and vanilla using a mixer until the mixture is creamy. Add in the flour and cinnamon and using a spatula, incorporate everything together until the mixture is moist enough to form a soft dough. Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for one hour.
- Make the Florentine topping. Melt together butter, sugar, and salt over medium heat in a saucepan. Once melted, turn off the heat and stir in the flour until incorporated. Stir in the almonds and cherries. Set mixture aside to cool.
- Form the Biscuits- On a floured board, roll the dough into 1/8 inch thickness. Cut circles using a cutter that is 2 and 1/2 inches in diameter. Gather remaining dough and re-roll to the same thickness and cut out more circles, as many as you can until all the dough is used up. Place the circles on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Top with the Florentine mixture and bake for 12 minutes or until the topping has melted and the biscuits are golden.
- Finish with a Coating of Dark Chocolate. Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave, heating it for about 15 minutes at a time until the surface is shiny. Stir chocolate until smooth and dip each biscuit until 1/4 of the circle is covered in chocolate.
Florentine biscuits are not only lovely in appearance but they are also guaranteed to delight you with their surface studded with delicious goodies.
Eat them as you cozy up with a drink and a blanket, or wrap them up in pretty tins and give them away as holiday gifts. I hope you enjoy making these and I wish this year is your best Holiday baking ever š
Looking for more baked treats? Also, try :
- Best Ever Chocolate Brownies
- Cookies Bars with Condensed Milk and Nutella
- Welsh Cakes
- Mini Vanilla Cupcakes with Cocoa Buttercream
- Mini Cinnamon Rolls with Coffee Icing
- Apple Crumb Cake
- Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Butterscotch Bars with Pecans and Chocolate Chips
Florentine Biscuits
These Florentine Biscuits are delightful cookies topped with a buttery glaze, almonds, cherries and then coated with melted chocolate.
Ingredients
For the Biscuits
- 175 grams salted butter softened
- 85 grams light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 225 grams all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
For the Florentine Topping
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 75 grams maraschino cherries about 10-14 pieces, chopped
- 3/4 cup flaked almonds
- 150 grams dark chocolate chopped
Instructions
Make the biscuits
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In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Add the flour and the cinnamon and use a spatula to incorporate them into the ingredients, stirring until the mixture is moist enough to form a soft ball of dough.
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Wrap the ball of dough in plastic. Chill in the fridge for one hour.
Make the Topping
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In a saucepan, melt together butter, sugar, and salt. Turn off heat and stir in the flour until dissolved. Stir in almonds and the cherries. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Assemble Florentine Biscuits and Bake
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On a floured surface, roll the dough into 1/8 inch thickness. Use a cookie cutter that is 2 and 1/2 inches in diameter and cut out as many circles as you can. Gather remaining dough and roll again to the same thickness and cut out more circles until all the dough is used up. Place every circular dough on prepared baking sheets, giving them about an inch space in between.
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Spoon the topping into each dough until all the topping is used up. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes or so, until the topping is melted and the biscuits golden. Let cool.
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In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate in the microwave. Heat it for 15 seconds at a time until chocolate is shiny. Stir chocolate to melt completely.
Dip each cooled biscuit until about 1/4 of the circle is covered. Place each biscuit back on the baking tray until the chocolate is set. Store in tightly covered container for up to 3 days.
Recipe Notes
- Use an offset metal spatula to transfer the cut-out biscuits dough from your rolling surface to the baking sheets.
- As you melt the chocolate in the microwave, note that it will not completely melt into a fluid state right away. The chocolate surface will be shiny but will still hold its shape. Stir it immediately to melt it completely.
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Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food
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