These Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Florentine Cookies are the most alluring and addicting cookies ever! The toasted hazelnuts adds a nice caramel tone to the overall flavor and the dark chocolate is lovingly sandwiched between.
It was our friend Leif’s birthday and we planned to meet him and some friends for dinner. So, at the last minute (as usual) I thought, I’m going to make him some cookies! I decided on these amazing florentines. Beware if you decide to make these because Robby and I could not stop eating them!
You can either leave them as they are or cut them with a cookie cutter like I did to the ones above.
Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Florentine Cookies Recipe:
Approx 20 cookies
- 2 Cups Ground Toasted Hazelnuts – recipe below
- 6 Tablespoons All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 Teaspoon Sea Salt
- 1 Stick Salted Butter
- 3/4 Cup Sugar ( I used non GMO Beet Sugar )
- 1/3 Cup Half and Half
- 2 Tablespoons Real Maple Syrup
- 1/2 Teaspoon Hazelnut Extract
- 8 Ounces Dark Chocolate Chips
Instructions:
Hazelnuts
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
Spread the hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 – 14 minutes. In about 5 – 7 minutes stir the nuts so they toast evenly while also checking on the progress.
When hazelnuts are cool put in the center of a towel and pull corners of the towel together and roll hazelnuts around with some force till skins come loose. A small amount of skin will remain on the nuts and that is fine.
Sometimes I separate the ones that the skins didn’t come off and put them back in the oven for a few more minutes.
When cool grind them in a food processor until fairly fine.
Cookie Dough
In a medium bowl stir the ground hazelnuts, flour and salt together and set aside.
Tear off a piece of parchment paper and line a heavy large baking sheet.
In a saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, half and half and maple syrup over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and remove from heat, then stir in the hazelnut extract.
Fold in the hazelnut flour mix and let cool for approx. 15 minutes.
Bake the Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Stir the batter and spoon a teaspoon on to the parchment paper. You will only be able to fit 8 cookies. You will need to leave a good amount of space between each cookie, they will spread. About 2 inches.
Bake for about 7 – 8 minutes or until lightly golden on the edges then slide parchment onto cooling rack and repeat until the batter is gone. Transfer the cookies to paper towels to remove excess butter.
I like to use 2 sheets of parchment so when one batch is cooking so I can start with the next. Just wipe off excess butter on the parchment paper with a paper towel.
Chocolate
Melt the chocolate in a bowl placed over a saucepan of water and simmer until the chocolate melts.
Spread onto one cookie then place another cookie on top, press down carefully and set on a cookie sheet with the bottom side down. You will have some chocolate coming thru.
Let cool until chocolate is hard. (you can speed the process up by putting them in the refrigerator)
Repeat with the rest of the cookies.
