Sweetapolita

Whipping Up a Sweet + Styley Life

Florentine Cookies + The Cookiepedia Book Giveaway {Winners Announced}

- 500 Comments

Happy Spring!

Well, sort of. It’s still snowing on and off here in Southern Ontario, but I’m hopeful. The good news is that this week is the first week in over 9 months during which I’ve been able to frolic freely in the kitchen and bake anything I wish. So Florentine cookies it was. And you guys, these are amazing. See, quite awhile back, I became enamoured with my talented friend Stacy Adimando’s cookbook, The Cookiepedia: Mixing Baking, and Reinventing the Classics, and I’ve been dying to make something, or everything, from it. 

So when I spotted a recipe for Florentines in her book, I knew I had to make them. And although Florentines are known to be an Italian treat (as the name suggests), I first fell in love with these crunchy, nutty discs of caramelized delight back when I was a teenager working at an Austrian bakery. When I googled this, I realized that appears to be a small debate regarding the Florentine cookie’s origin, but it’s safe to say that it is celebrated in not only Italy and Austria, but now here in my kitchen.  These are the most decadent and surprisingly simple cookies to prepare in all of the land, and I’ll just never get over them. I won’t.

So what exactly is a Florentine? Well, there are some variations, but typically they are super-thin, round, caramelized almond cookies made from butter, sugar, cream, corn syrup, salt and of course almonds, and there is usually some form of dark chocolate added. As you probably noticed in my photos, these ones are drizzled with chocolate as Stacy’s recipe includes, but many have their entire bottoms dipped in chocolate with a distinct pattern added, and include additional ingredients, such as candied fruit. Think of them as individual, lacy almond brittles that shatter in your mouth like little round sheets of nutty, buttery, caramel crack. Sometimes it actually kind of freaks me out that we have the power to create such deliciousness in our own kitchens, especially when it only takes a matter of minutes.

Stacy explains that the idea behind her book was to give 50 classic cookie recipes, and then offer ways to spin them into more modern versions with tons of ideas for adapting the recipes for countless variations. So, for example, she shares a chocolate chip recipe, but also a dark chocolate sea salt chip. And a peanut butter cookie, but also a pistachio butter cookie, and so many more. One of the reasons I love Stacy’s book most, aside from the gorgeous photography and charming illustration work, is that the recipes range so greatly–think everything from frosted animal crackers to French macarons, sables to sesame crisps, and so many more.

I know you guys will adore this book, if you don’t already that is, so I’m excited to host a The Cookiepedia giveaway! I have 3 copies of this go-to cookie book, courtesy of Stacy and Quirk Books, and I will be sending a copy to 3 lucky readers!

I’m also excited to share this recipe for the Florentines–they truly are of the most exquisite cookies I have tasted in a long time. I’ve listed the recipe just as it is in the book, but I have also added the ingredient weights, just in case, as well as some of my own notes below.

Print
Florentine Cookies with Chocolate Drizzles
Decadent nutty, buttery, caramelized cookie discs drizzled in dark chocolate. Recipe as printed in The Cookiepedia cookbook by Stacy Adimando.
Ingredients
  • 1 cup 227 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/4 cups 250 grams sugar
  • 2 tablespoons 60 grams corn syrup
  • 1 tablespoon 8 grams all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup 80 ml heavy cream (whipping cream)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/3 cups 210 grams sliced almonds
  • 4 ounces 120 grams roughly chopped bittersweet chocolate
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 °F. Line a few baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set them aside.
  2. Melt the butter, sugar and corn syrup together over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk to combine. Add the cream and salt and do the same.
  3. Let cook until the mixture comes to a full boil, and then add in the almonds and stir to combine. Continue cooking for 3 more minutes until the mixture thickens and starts to move around the pan in one mass. Take the pan off the heat.
  4. Drop 4 small spoonfuls of dough onto cookie sheets, leaving as much room between them as possible (the baked cookies will spread to about triple the size).
  5. Using an offset spatula or a wet hand, spread and flatten the batter into 3-inch rounds, creating a thin layer.
  6. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes, or until edges are brown and centers are just turning golden.
  7. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and immediately reshape the cookies back into 3-inch circles, using the offset spatula or the back of a spoon to drag the batter back into place and round the edges. The cookies will harden within a few minutes.
tip: if they harden too fast, just return them to the oven for a minute or so.
  1. Cool the reshaped cookies until they are firm and cool enough to handle. Then move them to a wire rack covered with parchment paper to set completely.
  2. As the optional (though delicious and suggested) finisher, melt the chocolate, in a glass or metal bowl over a pot of simmering water on the stove. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the tops of the Florentines. Let harden.
Florentine Ice Cream Sandwiches
  1. When the cookies have cooled completely, skip the chocolate drizzle. Let a container of coffee or vanilla ice cream sit out, or microwave at 10-second intervals, until it's soft enough to dollop. In the meantime, lay half the Florentines on a parchment-lined baking sheet flat side up. Drop a heaping spoonful of the softened ice cream (about 2-3 tablespoons) into the center of each. Top with the remaining cookies and press lightly to adhere. Cover the baking sheet loosely with foil and place in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Sweetapolita’s Notes:

  • I used a 1-tablespoon capacity cookie scoop for my cookies, and they spread quite a bit, yielding more of a very thin, large 5 1/2-inch round cookie, but I love them this size, so I simply worked to round the edges when they first came out of the oven. Use about 1 teaspoon size spoon for 3-inch cookies, or somewhere in between.
  • Much like a caramel concoction of any kind, the longer you heat (bake) the cookies, the darker and more intense the caramel flavour and colour will be, so there is a little room for personal preference with the baking times. I baked 1 sheet at a time on the middle rack of the oven, and kept the cookies in for the full 8 minutes. Once they start to turn golden, they have the potential to burn very quickly, so I recommend keeping a super-close eye on them at that point, and remove them from the oven quickly.
  • It might seem as though it’s going to take a lifetime to bake 36 cookies when 4-to-a-tray, but at 8 minutes each, time, it goes by really quickly!
  • I just used a fork to “fling” the melted chocolate onto the cookies in a fun drizzly criss-cross pattern.
  • Stacy mentions that these cookies are best enjoyed right after cooling, and I can certainly agree that these are amazing in that window of time (I could not stop eating them), but I then sealed them in a Ziploc bag after the chocolate drizzle set, and they’re still going strong (ahem) and tasting fabulous at the end of day 2.

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Good luck & enjoy!

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Comments

  7. I’ve always been enchanted with Florentines, but never thought they would be so easy to make. Thank you for the giveaway and the cookies :)

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  8. My all time favorite cookie is peanut butter oatmeal! I love them because they remind me of baking with my grandmother

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  10. Oh gosh these are gorgeous! Hmmm I enjoy baking a lot of different things but I guess simple vanilla almond sugar cookies are what I bake most often – lots of beautiful palettes ready for decorating! :)

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  11. These were my favorite cookie to sneak from my Aunt’s bakery when I was a kid but my favorite to bake are iced shortbreads. Those have been the biggest and most begged for hit from my kitchen!

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  16. These look amazing! Thanks for including ingredient weights – makes it so much easier (in my opinion!)

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  20. These cookies look amazing! I love every recipe that you post. Seriously, I cannot wait to try this one out. Thank you :)

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  27. I am so posting this on Pinterest…lol. It is the only place that my recipes are organized and not spilling out of a cupboard somewhere. The cookies look so yummy. Thanks for sharing.

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  29. My all time favorite cookie is a vegan chocolate chip and rosemary. It is sweet and savory and aromatic. Actually, anything with chocolate is fantastic…but the addition of rosemary is amazing.

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  33. Rosie finalmente sei tornata! Come mai non fai più le tue belle torte? Spero che ritornerai presto perchè mi manchi. Ciao

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  47. These cookies looks ohh soo heavenly! Love that you’re back and running on the blog again. I follow and like Sweetapolita on FaceBook!

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  51. My favorite cookie is a twist to the chocolate chip recipe: Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies with Walnuts – add toffee and you’ve got yourself chewy deliciousness!!!!

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  57. Snickerdoodles and a sourcream cookie our my favorites! I made your lemon cake the other day and it was to die for!! Thanks :) !

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  59. My favorite cookie….so many to choose from! My favorite cookie is probably my chocolate chip sticks…so deliciously perfect every time!

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  60. Oooh! I would love to win this book. The Floretines look divine. Have to try my hand at those sometime soon.

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  61. oh my favorite cookie has to me old good chocolate chip cookie, with a glass of milk :) but these look amazing!

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  84. MMM…cookies.

    My latest is to make chocolate chip cookies but instead of using chips wrap the dough around a mini Lindt truffle. So good!

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  91. My favorite cookie…it’s hard to choose! I do love a classic chocolate chocolate chip cookie, but any cookie will do!!

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  96. My favorite cookie has to be the Russian Tea Balls my husband makes in the winter. He says they’re only for holidays with snow; I say they’re so good we should have a plate on hand every day.

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  102. My favorite cookie is the 3 chocolate (Dark, milk and praline) that I actually make at home !! Really good !!

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  105. Hello, I love your blog, I am a faithful reader French. I have tested some of your recipes, I’m a fan and my kids too! Besides, my 4 year old daughter asked me for his next birthday, themed cake Frozen Disney. I will draw your recipes. I do not know if the giveaway goes to France but I will be delighted to discover the book of cookies.

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  107. Remember David Woods on Yonge? Maybe before your time? – but they had these enormous oatmeal raisin cookies that were so good. I bought his recipe book just for that one recipe and the book is still unused other than that page, where it falls open to. The paper is covered with crayon marks from my kids when they were little.
    Carol (Toronto)

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    • My office was literally around the corner from the shop, and I was a huge fan of the oatmeal raisin cookies! My absolute favourite, that I still long for was the Florentines…ah, memories!

      Reply

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  117. These are gorgeous! My all time favourite cookie is chewy ginger molasses cookies. I could eat them by the pound:)

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  123. My favorite cookies have got to be these maple pecan cookies that my mom made me as a kid, with a maple glaze on top – the recipe is my great grandmother’s! Soooo delicious and these bring back so many memories for me! :)

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  145. Unfortunately, there has never been a homemade/bakery cookie I haven’t liked…but ginger cookies would be top of the list. Looking for a good recipe using fresh ginger…hmmm

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  147. I am a simple girl with simple needs…Nestle Toll House cookies are my fav’s…warm and gooey!! Salivating thinking about them!! YUM!

    Reply

  148. These look so good! Ginger cookies would be top of my list. Looking for a good recipe using fresh ginger…hmmm

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  163. Favourite cookie? There are so many! But my Italian grandmother makes amazing cookies, including these boozy Peach-looking ones…which I think may be some of the best cookies I’ve ever graced my taste buds with!

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  166. Mexican wedding cookies are my favorite! I love baking cookies, and would just love to get my hands on that cookbook!

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  173. I’ve never tried florentine cookies, but this post makes me want to! They sound so delicious! Until I give these a try, my favorite cookie has always been a snickrdoodle. Just something about that cookie that I love! Hope to win this cookbook. Would be nice to see all the variations she has made to her cookie recipes.

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  176. I don’t Facebook or Tweet, but I do follow your blog via email and have been enjoying your recipes for a long time. Keep up the good work!

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  181. I so love Florentine cookies and to have this recipe for them make me very happy as my bakery quit making them!

    I am very interested in this cookbook to see what else I can learn to make.

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  183. This is a tricky one! But if I had to choose, probably my Mum’s chocolate chip cookies. She makes these without eggs, and uses condensed milk and rolled oats. The unbaked mixture is so good, I often have trouble getting them to the oven!

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  185. My favourite cookies are oatmeal cookies although I’ve been trying to make French macarons for the past few days and I’ve had the worst time to the point that now I am obsessed with them and I think I won’t be making any other type of cookie until I get the macarons right ;-)

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  188. Caramel stuffed chocolate cookie… or peanut butter cup stuffed chocolate chip cookie… or chocolate lava cookies (my own invention!)

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  192. I love the chocolate, oatmeal, haystacks my mom used to make on the top of the stove. These florentines are to die for!!

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  197. I fell in love with these cookies the very first time I tried them when I was about 12 years old. Delicious!!

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  209. My favorite cookie is orange – flavored roll out sugar cookies. I developed my own recipe and my family loves them too.

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  216. Those are lovely! I’ve had and baked so many different kinds of cookies, but at the end of a long hard day, all I want is a warm, salty, gooey chocolate chip cookie. It has to have brown sugar in it!

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  225. Any good old-fashioned chocolate chip cookie is my favorite. I loooove cookies, and it’s fun to jazz up the classics. This sounds like a fun book!

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  231. I already like you and I totally want to win this book – and I am so excited you worked at an Austrian bakery!!! I was born and raised in Salzburg and came to the USA when I was 20! Yeahh for Florentines, one of my favorites!

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  233. …and my all time favorite cookie is what we call in Austria “Pariser stangerl”, which is somewhat of a macaroon type thing, made with egg white, finely grated almonds or hazelnuts and sugar, shaped into small bars, and topped with a very thin layer of merengue. :)

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  243. oooh, it’s been so many years since i last had florentines! my old apartment was just above a little bakery and they made such tasty florentines. maybe i should pay a visit, hmm…
    got to go with the classics though. there’s nothing like a chocolate chip cookie.

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  248. I am not an avid cookie baker. Still learning ups and downs of cookie making :) Love to try these. Got a friend who is pregnant. Will try to make these for her.

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  251. Hello,
    I have been trying to enter the “Cookiepedia” sweepstakes and it keeps failing, I’m not sure what the problem is because I’m doing everything I normally do to enter. Please let me know if there has been a problem and if not I’m not sure if I will be able to enter. Thoughts on your book…about time someone creates a cookie book with ALL my favorite cookies, thank you!!!
    Kathy

    Reply

  258. These really look yummy! I love oatmeal raisin and butter cookies, but any type of cookie is just fine.

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  263. First of all Rosie, I’m so glad you’re back, and I can’t wait to get your book! With that said, chocolate chip cookies are my fave :)

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  273. I love florentines-but haven’t made them for lack of a good recipe. IThat will be changing soon :)

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  276. Good old fashion chocolate chip cookies and Greek cookies. Their version of biscotti is wonderful.

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  290. Think I will try to make these Gluten Free and replace the flour with GFree flour for my daughter. Any thoughts? Love your website, creative ideas and recipes.

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  294. Oh, these look so yummy! MY favorite all time cookies are dark chocolate chip cookies – nothing beats those! :)

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  301. Actually, my favorites are Florentines! But I would never turn down a crunchy chocolate chip or peanut butter cookie. Actually, anything crunchy would do. …

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  308. I just recently tried (and loved) the chocolate toffee macadamia lacey cookies from Costco and boom…you post this. I can’t wait to give it a try! Looks amazing.

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  316. I have a hard time choosing my favorite cookie; I closely associate cookies with my Mom and her recipes. I’d say it’s a toss up between dark chocolate cherry cookies and lemon crinkle cookies.

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  326. You mean I have to pick one kind? I think I’ll have to go with gingersnaps, though sugar cookies are a close second.

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  327. Well, I love all cookies but my favorite one is a peanut butter – chocolate cookie with chocolate chips in it. :)

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  329. My all time favourite cookie would have to be the classic chocolate chip! I vividly remember baking many batches when I was a child! I have already liked you on Facebook, post shared as well.

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  334. I made creme fraiche double chocolate cookies a few weeks ago and froze the dough raw so that I could have fresh baked cookies all week. Delicious!

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  348. oh how can anyone choose just one favorite? chocolate chip probably. thank you for the chance to win this lovely cookbook!

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  354. I have to pick just one favorite cookie? Well, there’s ginger cookies, pipparkakut, oatmeal cookies with lots of spices, my caramel/Skor cookies….actually anything homemade is fair game for my taste buds!

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  356. My favourite cookie would have to be the white chocolate chunk & macadamia nut cookie.
    Although cinnamon sugar cookies are a close 2nd.

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  357. Such a difficult question as I LOVE cookies in almost any variety. But if I have to choose I would say alfajores.

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  368. I have a problem/love with all homemade cookies- can’t get enough of them! My recent favorite is frosted sugar cookies.

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  376. Reece’s peanut butter chips in a dark chocolate cookie! So yummy! I keep some dough in the freezer all the time!

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  379. Mmm… I work at Arizmendi bakery in San Rafael, California… my favorite cookie of all time is the vegan double chocolate mint cookie that we make. I could eat one every day, and sometimes I do!!

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  380. I love Neopolitans, the Italian rainbow or seven layer cookies. I make my grandma’s recipe every Christmas.

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  381. I actually don’t know the name of my favorite cookie. It came from a beautiful tin boxed cookie assortment my grandmother used to buy for us kids when we went to the beach for Christmas. It was like a flaky, sweet, and buttery rectangle cookie drizzled with chocolate, I suppose it was just a traditional Christmas butter cookie…but the memories it recalls just makes it special. :)

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  385. My all time favorite cookie is Amaretti! I’m usually eating them right of the cookie sheet, can’t keep my hands of them lol!
    I really want to make these, but I don’t see an oven temp in the recipe. I may have overlooked it, but I read through a few times.
    Thanks and glad your back! Can’t wait to see the cookbook

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  387. Ooooh so difficult to pick one. Well I’d have to go for rose scented butter cookies with a glazed icing on top :D

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  400. Hi Rosie!!! my favorite cookie of all time is chocolate chip cookie! I´m fan on facebook and i follow you on twitter ;)

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  404. Not a real “cookie” but I love homemade rocky road! So easy and can be made with any ingredients you have laying around! Just make sure you have the best chocolate you can find and add all the nuts, dried fruit and marshmallow you want!

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  405. My favorite cookie is a particular soft sugar cookie made at a cookie cake bakery near my house. It’s always served warm and I love how they sprinkle it with rainbow sanding sugar. I’m a fan of you on facebook!

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  422. True confession time – my all-time favorite cookies are chocolate covered graham crackers kept cold in the refrigerator.

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  425. How do you pick a favorite cookie? My go to is to bake chocolate chip or chocolate-chocolate chip cookies.

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  429. Hard to decide about a favorite cookie but if I have to choose, my favorite cookies are chewy chocolate chip cookies, I could never resist to them!

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  430. Favorite cookies are without a doubt “Dad’s Goodie Rings”, samoa’s, and those amazing CHEWY chips ahoj cookies!

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  438. Oh, I bake every Monday to send a care package to my daughters away at university. I’m always looking for new recipes, but my personal favourite is a zippy gingersnap. Cheers from NZ, Karen

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  446. All cookies are amazing, and I would never pass one up! But I don’t think anything will ever beat a perfectly baked, warm, gooey, soft & chewy chocolate chip cookie :)
    PS so glad you’re back blogging! I’ve missed the drool worthy recipes
    xo

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  448. Oh, but it’s so hard to choose just one!!! Big, soft, gooey chocolate chip cookies are towards the top, but I also love good old-fashioned peanut blossoms… and so many others! It’s impossible to narrow it down, but
    those are two of my favorites.

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  453. Growing up, my mom (who rarely baked )used to make these awesome chewy oatmeal coconut cookies we called “Dad’s Cookies. Now that I’m a mom (who LOVES to bake!) I make them for my girls, and they’re still my favourite. Welcome back Rosie, you’ve been missed!

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  459. i have been following your site for awhile now, look forward to checking your site every week! i am glad you have time for more posts! the cookie cookbook design looks very classic and would definitely lengthen my to-do list!

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  462. Succareens that my neighbor makes around the holidays, followed closely by my Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies! :)

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  471. I’ve been wanting to try a cookie recipe that went a bit beyond the usual but couldn’t figure out what to try. Until now! I never knew these were so easy to make. Something this fancy always gives the impression that they take tons of effort and skill. I’ll be trying these soon…..and no doubt as ice cream sandwiches :D My favourite cookie: Ginger nuts!

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    • Oops! Forgot to answer the question ;)
      My all time favorite cookie is a white chocolate macadamia cookie! :D

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  473. The World’s Best Cookie….it’s a shortbread type cookie with cornflakes in it. I found it on the old, old Baking Circle blog many years ago.

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  476. you are a life saver!! can’t wait to try this recipe. I tried to make florentines a while back but they werent as nice and thin as yours! x

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  477. Hi im a fan of your website.Backed your Millionaire’s Layer Cake for my dads B-Day was a huge success, company said it was the best cake they’ve ever eaten.
    PS.it was my first layer cake ever.Thanks so much for the great recipes was just wondering what the temperature the oven needs to be preheated at for the florentine-cookie recipe.
    Thanks Courtney

    Reply

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