Florentine Cookie Bars
These Florentine Cookie Bars combine all the wonderful flavors and textures of Florentine cookies with a buttery shortbread bar. It’s a great Christmas treat, and they are one of my 12 shipping-friendly food gift ideas for Christmas and beyond!
If you love Florentine cookies, prepare to enjoy them in another form: cookie bars!
Florentines have always been one of my favorite cookies because, really, when there are crunchy almonds, flavors of orange, dried fruit and honey, it’s bound to be amazing. There’s so much flavor!
Traditional florentines are a little bit finicky to make (and especially to shape), so I thought, why not take all of the components and flavors of a florentine cookie, and layer it on buttery, rich shortbread?
It turned out fantastic.
Most of the time, I use unsalted butter for my baking recipes so that I can control the salt, but shortbread is an exception (you’ll see the same in my Shortbread Cookies recipe).
For this recipe I’m using salted butter, and the reason is that I prefer not to have big granules of salt distributed throughout shortbread.
For things like Chocolate Chip Cookies or Peanut Butter Cookies, it’s great to have little pops of salt, but for a smooth, buttery shortbread experience, we’re going to use salted butter so the seasoning is evenly distributed.
How to Make It Step by Step:
To get started, place two sticks of salted butter and a 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl.
Cream them together until fluffy, then add vanilla extract.
Mix in flour until it is distributed (the dough will look crumbly, don’t worry).
Despite its crumbly appearance, the dough should hold together when squished in your hand.
Press the shortbread into an 8×12 pan with your fingertips. (This recipe will also work in a 9×13 pan too.)
Bake the shortbread in a 350 degrees F oven, and in the meantime, start the topping.
Combine salted butter, sugar, heavy cream and honey in a saucepan.
Cook this mixture until it reaches 250 F.
Add dried cherries, almonds, and orange zest.
Stir it all together and immediately spread it evenly on top of the shortbread.
Bake for another 20 minutes until the cherries are plump.
Let the Florentine cookie bars cool completely, then cut into squares and serve.
Lavender Shortbread Cookies, Molasses Cookies, and Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are other favorites for Christmas.
And then there’s Cut Out Cookies if you want to do some decorating. Enjoy!
Florentine Cookie Bars
Ingredients
For the shortbread base
- 1 cup salted butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
For the topping
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 cup blanched sliced almonds
- 1 cup dried cherries* chopped
- zest of 1 orange
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- To make the shortbread base, place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together by whipping on medium-high speed for 60 seconds. Add the vanilla extract and mix until combined. Add the flour to the bowl and mix at medium speed until the flour is distributed, about 60 seconds. The dough will look crumbly, but should hold together when pressed with your fingers.
- Press the shortbread dough into a 8×12 inch pan with your fingertips, then bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown on the edges. (You can also use a 9×13 pan, with slightly less baking time.)
- While the shortbread bakes, make the topping. In a large saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, heavy cream and honey. Place over medium-high heat and cook it until it reaches 250° F on a candy thermometer. While cooking, do not stir the mixture, because this could cause crystallization. Once the mixture has reached the proper temperature, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the almonds, cherries and orange zest. Immediately spread this mixture evenly over the top of the shortbread.
- Bake for 20 minutes (or slightly less time for a larger pan) until the cherries are plump. Let the pan cool completely, then cut into bars and serve!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
Post updated in December 2018. Originally posted December 2014.
173 Comments on “Florentine Cookie Bars”
Cheesecake! All kinds, any kinds…it’s perfect for a cold holiday season when it’s snowing outside. Rich & comforting!
Sugar cookies because it is the only time of year I will put the time and effort into making and decorating them.
my mom’s recipe for sugar cookies, using 1 pound of butter, we drop them by the spoonful they’re a pillow/puffy soft cookie that we frost or dust w/sugar
Gingerbread…gingerbread men…chewy gingersnap cookies…
I love to bake molasses cookies! Thanks!
We love to make spritz cookies at our house.
I love to make Mexican wedding cookies, yes I do..I also like to make these lacy cookies I have to roll over a wooden spoon handle, they come out yummee..Have a wonderful holiday I could use the cookbook(s) and the butter as I am always running out of butter and I need to bake and make better recipes..ciao mary
I love baking gingerbread cookies!
I love to make cakes for the Christmas party!
I love making a New York Cherry Cheesecake for guests.
My fave is cream cheese sugar cutout cookies and chocolate crinkles!
My mom’s sugar cut-out cookies! They’re so good!
My favorite thing to make is peanut butter fudge. I use my Grandmother’s recipe. She taught me how to make it when I was about 15. I am 47 now and I have made it every year since. That is a lot of peanut butter fudge. Everyone (family, friends, and co-workers) love it. They all insist that I make it! Anyway, she passed in 1988. I will never stop making it because it always reminds me of her.
My favorite dessert I make for Christmas is Blarney Squares, no one can figure out what is inside.
My gram’s apple pie!
key lime pie!