Chocolate-Dipped Florentines

By AllisonClayman

Ingredients

• Adapted from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook (Ebury)
• 1 1 1 large egg white, at room temperature
• 1/3 1/3 1/3 cup (50g) powdered sugar
• 1 3/4 1 3/4 3/4 cup (130g) blanched sliced almonds
• a good pinch of flaky sea salt
• grated zest of half an orange*, preferably unsprayed

Details

Servings 20
Adapted from davidlebovitz.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat the oven to 300F (150C).

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and brush very lightly with neutral vegetable oil.

3. In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients.

4. Keep a small bowl of cold water and a fork near where you’re working.

5. Dip your hand in the cold water before lifting each portion of almonds, and place heaping tablespoon-sized mounds of the batter evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheet.

6. Once you’ve covered the baking sheet, dip the fork in cold water to flatten the cookies as much as possible. Try to avoid having many gaps between the almonds.

7. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. Exact time will vary based on how large your cookies are. The authors recommend lifting the bottom of one with a metal spatula to check and see if they’re cooked through. If they’re not brown across the top and bottom, they won’t be agreeably crispy.

8. Let cookies cool, then lift with a thin metal spatula and place them on a cooling rack until crisp. Continue baking all the cookies on the same baking sheet. (I found no need to re-oil it between uses.)

Store Florentines in an airtight container until ready to serve.

To Coat the Cookies with Chocolate

To coat one side with chocolate, melt a few ounces of chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate in a clean, dry bowl, stirring until smooth. Use a brush or metal spatula to coat the underside of each cookie with a thin layer of chocolate. Let cool in a cool place or the refrigerator until firm. Once firm, store Florentines in an airtight container at room temperature.

More Recipe Notes:

You can temper the chocolate if you’re not going to eat them within a relatively short period of time, if you want to avoid the chocolate ‘blooming’. Or just dip and cool them a few hours before serving time.
*I didn’t have any orange zest so added a few drops of orange oil, which worked perfectly.
When Twittering, I realized that these cookies are gluten-free, which pleased Daniela, who was pining for a great flourless chocolate cookie recipe. This is it!
Heidi did a beautiful post with photographs featuring Ottolenghi’s Red Rice and Quinoa Recipe.
Visit the Ottolenghi website for more recipes and information about the restaurant.
I’d planned to test baking the Florentines using my silicone baking mat, but had such good success with parchment paper I didn’t want to take any chances. If you do try it, let me know how they come out.
And lastly, as I was dipping the Florentines, I couldn’t wait for the chocolate to harden and started eating them. And soon my mug was dripping liquid chocolate. I was going to post the picture here, but thought it was too odd and might give folks the willies.
So click ayor!