Hey Everyone!

So, a friend of mine just got me into watching “The Great British Baking Show” on Netflix. On season 1, episode 2, they make florentines. I had never heard of a florentine cookie at this point in my baking career, but I was incredibly intrigued by it. It was so lacey and delicate, so I figured there couldn’t be much flour in it, therefore, it may be an easy cookie to turn gluten-free. I checked the recipe online and, sure enough, there was only 1 tablespoon of flour in the whole batch.

My first batch started out good, I thought, until the butter started to separate from the flour and sugar I had just mixed into the melted butter. Apparently, you have to keep stirring it the WHOLE time during this step or it will be utterly ruined and gross looking. So, that batch went in the sink.

My second try turned out much better! The butter still started to separate a little bit but not nearly as much, so don’t get scared if you see it doing that a little bit. Just stir it for 3 minutes and then add the milk and it will start to smooth out.

Now was the moment of truth! I let the batter cool until it could be scooped up into little balls and I put a small teaspoon of batter on the cookie sheet. Probably a half a teaspoon would be even better. If you put a heaping teaspoon onto the pan it will spread too much and connect with other cookies and get too brown. Even though it will look like you are hardly putting any batter on the pan it will pay off if you show restraint.

I popped them into the oven and watched them like a hawk. It only took them 5 minutes to cook in my oven so it is very easy to burn these! I cooked them until the edges were a good golden brown and the middle was starting to brown. They will bubble like crazy until you pull them out of the oven so don’t try to wait until they stop bubbling. If you do that, you will have bitter cookies.

Let them cool a bit before you transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool completely before you try to eat them. Thankfully, this does not take much time either since they are so thin and have holes in them.

So, why do I call these “My Florentines”. That’s because I don’t think these are quite the same as regular florentines. I believe mine are a bit thinner than regular florentines, but I haven’t figured out why yet. The reason I went ahead and put them on my blog is because I just love the way these turned out!!! Baking is all about fixing things how you like it. If it’s not technically the way you are “suppose” to do it but you love it anyway…it is a success!

One more note…I was not a fan of putting the chocolate on these cookies. The reason is that, for me, the chocolate overpowered the delicate flavor of the cookies and all I could taste was chocolate. Traditionally, you are supposed to have chocolate on the bottom and this is the way the kids liked them best. So, if you leave off the chocolate, the cookies will still be “delightful” as they say in England.

Enjoy!