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These florentine lace cookies are perfectly thin and crispy with a layer of rich chocolate sandwiched between.
Easy Nut-Free Florentine Lace Cookies
Florentine lace cookies are a variety of cookie that not many people have heard of or tried, but they are absolutely worth making. They require minimal ingredients and look bakery-made! They are a unique and delicious treat that pair wonderfully with coffee, tea, and even ice cream!
Typically, lace cookies are made with butter, sugar, nuts, and a little bit of flour. Preparing them involves finely chopping the nuts and cooking the butter and sugar on the stove before baking. The final result is a bit closer to candy than a cookie. These cookies are a bit different. They are still thin and crispy with a wonderful caramelized, toffee-like flavor, but don’t include nuts (which reduces prep time and makes them nut-allergy friendly) and don’t involve cooking the butter and sugar before baking (which makes them a bit faster to prepare).
I adore lace cookies, but wanted to create a version that I could make when I didn’t have nuts on-hand. This recipe is the result and I’m thrilled that I can now whip up a batch quickly whenever I want them. They’re a great cookie for snacking, a holiday platter, or as a last-minute dessert for entertaining.
Dark Chocolate Middles
Lace cookies make wonderful sandwich cookies when filled with chocolate. This recipe calls for dark chocolate because the depth and slight bitterness from the dark chocolate pairs perfectly with the sweet cookies. You may, however, enjoy milk, semi-sweet, or white chocolate sandwiched between them.
A Note About the Butter
You may notice that this recipe calls for “extra softened” butter. This is an important note because the temperature of the butter can impact the final cookie. If the butter is too cold, the cookies may not spread enough to create that thin and lacy texture that we want. The butter should be smoother and more spreadable than standard softened butter — especially in colder weather or kitchens. A helpful way to think about it is in the context of white bread. The butter should be soft enough that you would be able to spread it easily over the bread without it tearing.
Equipment
You don’t need any fancy equipment for this recipe, but the following are nice to have for most cookie recipes:
Easy Florentine Lace Cookies (Nut-Free)
Ingredients
- ½ cup (1 stick) (113 g) butter, extra softened*
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- ¼ cup (52 g) dark brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ cup (90 g) flour
- 6 oz. (170 g) dark chocolate
Instructions
Preparing the Cookies
- Preheat oven to 325℉.
- Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add in vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well combined.
- Mix in flour until combined.
- Roll dough into 1-teaspoon-size balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet 3 inches apart.
- Bake for 10 minutes. The cookies should have little holes and be evenly browned.
- Allow to cool for several minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
Assembling the Cookies
- Microwave the chocolate in short intervals, stirring in between, until fully melted.
- Hold a cookie flat-side up. Spoon a thin layer of melted chocolate onto the cookie, then top with a similarly sized cookie. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet to set.
Notes
If you try out this recipe for easy nut-free florentine lace cookies, I’d love to know what you think! Please leave a comment with a rating below and share a photo of your creation on Instagram using the hashtag #BrooksideKitchen and tag @BrooksideKitchen
