Baking Bouchon - Recipe 84: Florentines

Florentines are one of the last recipes in the cookie chapter.  I still have a few more flavors of Macaroons to make (which I plan to make all at the same time because I'm a glutton for punishment) and then we can call this chapter done.

These are actually really interesting cookie bars and I'm going to tell you all about them but can we first talk about the term "nutmeats".  I've never seen this term before but it apparently means nuts that are out of their shell.  I see all sort of nuts out of their shell - walnuts, pecans, etc. - but I've never seen them referred to as nutmeats.  For some reason the pistachios I bought out of their shell were labeled nutmeats.  Am I the only one who is uncomfortable with this word?  I don't like that I've just typed it three times on my blog.  It kind of grosses me out.  Why can't we call them shelled nuts?

So, back to these bars... They start with a base layer of Pâte Sucreé which is essentially a sugar cookie.  That gets rolled out and baked.

Next up are a mixture of almonds, pistachios and candied orange peel that are swimming in a syrup made from milk, sugar, glucose, honey, butter and salt.

I was supposed to make my own candied orange peel for this recipe but it was such a pain in the rear last time I made the recipe in this cookbook that I decided to skip it.  While I've committed to making every recipe in the book, I did not commit to torture myself repeatedly.

The syrupy nut mixture goes on top of the Pâte Sucreé and gets baked until it's set and golden brown.

My favorite part of this process was flipping the entire thing over and spreading chocolate all over it. 

After the chocolate hardens you flip it over again and slice it into single servings.

These were pretty awesome!  I thought the combination of the candied orange peel and the chocolate would be weird but the orange peel is really subtle (so thank goodness I didn't spend hours making it) and nuts and chocolate is always a great combination.  They're also just a little bit salty but I love in baked goods.

I definitely think I'll make these again and can see using any combination of nuts.  The recipe suggests adding dried fruit as well but I think we all know how I feel about that.

Enjoy!
Julie