Bouchon Bakery: Florentines

Florentines are what I’ll label as “fancy” cookies from the Bouchon Bakery book. While Thomas Keller’s cookie offerings primarily focus on American classics and interpretations of childhood favorites, florentines are more complex both in execution and flavor.

 

There is a chewy, caramel nut layer studded with orange peel which pairs with the dark chocolate coating. Typically that is it for the florentine but Thomas Keller adds a sweet dough layer in the middle which provides more structure. I also think it adds more substance to the cookie and without it, I’d classify it more like a candy. With all the different elements, this recipe more than any of the other cookies, is best done in stages.

The first step is preparing the orange peel. Making it does take a while and I’d compare the process similar to that of making jam. The technique in the book involves cooking the peels down with the piths. This is the method I was taught and continue to do because I personally love the chew and extra meatiness from having the pith. There is about 30 minutes of prep and 1.5 hours of cook time. However, for the florentines you really only need the orange part so you can reduce the cooking time down to 20 minutes by starting with just the orange part (no pith). Serious Eats has a photo slideshow to guide you through it.

Or yes, you can buy orange peel in specialty markets. If you are in San Francisco I’ve noted locations here.

The above photo is the start of the process. The flesh is scooped out of the oranges. Then the hollowed-out halves go through a blanching process where they are put into boiling water three times to remove the bitterness and soften them. I do like the trick in the Serious Eats slideshow of having two pots of water going so you quickly transfer from one to the other rather than wait for a pot to boil three different times.

After blanching, if there is still some flesh remaining, it should be really easy to scoop out now. Then the halves are cut into strips and placed in a sugar syrup for 1.5 hours to infuse the sweetness and further cook the peels so they end up being tender but still have some bite. Again, if you are only using the orange part of the peel you can cook for 20 minutes.

The last step is to remove the pith. You’ll need 3 tablespoons of finely chopped peel so there will be leftovers which you can keep in a airtight jar and snack on like I would or use them in other things.

A snapshot of the different layers:

1) Sucree crust- this sweet crust is what would be used for tarts, so it’s similar to a shortbread cookie and sweet which I really like in this recipe. I did not blind bake it, rather I docked the bottom very well and then froze it before baking. It stayed flat while baking.

2) Nut layer- spread over the sucree crust

3) Second bake- the nuts are still raw at this point so they will toast and get a nice golden color in the oven. The caramel will also deepen in color. I took mine a little too far, so I would aim for a lighter brown as shown in the book.

4) Chocolate layer- once the nut and cookie layer has completely cooled, it is inverted and melted chocolate is spread over the cookie crust. Using a rectangular-toothed icing comb, I dragged it across the chocolate to create a wave pattern. This was the ooh, ahh moment of the whole project. Definitely very satisfying.

Here you can see the layers of chocolate, golden cookie center and caramel nut bottom.

Once the chocolate has set, the edges of the bar are trimmed and cut into pieces. I made mine 2″ squares. Thomas Keller has his as rectangles approximately 2 x 3″.

After several days of working on this cookie I’d say it was a success. If I were to repeat, I’d just watch the cooking time  of the nut layer. There were a few bits of hard caramel that didn’t disrupt the overall taste but texturally was a little off. Also the orange peel got a little bit stiff. My favorite part was the cookie and chocolate combination so in the future I’d do a simpler version with the cookie bottom, melted chocolate and sprinkled sliced almonds on top.

Week 9 of the Bouchon Bakery Book Project

Read the Project recap on the Florentines

Bake with us!