These Chocolate Florentine Lace Cookies are elegant with a mix of nutty, chocolatey flavor. This delicious cookie recipe is easy to make and looks beautiful, making it perfect to serve for dessert or give as a gift.
Table Of Contents
Recipe Details
These Lace Cookies with Chocolate, or Florentine Cookies, are a festive and fun dessert that you just have to try. I love serving these delicate treats to guests because not only do they taste great, but they also look great. These are some of my favorites, and I hope they become your favorite, too!
- TASTE: This recipe uses tasty ingredients like melted chocolate, chopped almonds, and brown sugar. It’s sweet and nutty with rich chocolate flavor.
- TEXTURE: These Florentine cookies have the perfect crunch from the honey-sweetened almonds that are used for their base. After baking, they are slim and held together as a sandwich by melted chocolate.
- TIME: These decadent cookies take just 38 minutes to make.
- EASE: This is an is easy to follow recipe that only uses a few ingredients.
What You’ll Need
Ingredient Notes
- Almonds- This is ground down to create the almond meal used as the base for these cookies.
- All-purpose flour– This adds some elasticity to the batter which is mostly almond flour.
- Butter- Use unsalted.
- Golden brown sugar– This adds rich sweetness to the cookies.
- Honey- This adds natural sweetness.
- Vanilla extract– For a touch of vanilla flavor.
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips– This will be melted for the filling.
Add-ins and Substitutions
- Make them gluten-free- Just substitute brown rice flour or oat flour for the all-purpose flour and you have gluten-free florentine cookies.
- Add orange flavor- You can add orange extract or zest to the batter for a citrusy flavor.
- Add a different filling- You can try this cookie with a filling of Nutella, white chocolate, or peanut butter.
- Add dried fruits- You could also enjoy these with dried cherries, cranberries, or figs.
How to Make Lace Cookies with Chocolate
- Chop the almonds. Place the almonds in a food processor and pulse on high speed until the almonds are chopped into fine crumbs. Set them aside.
- Melt the butter and sugar. In a medium saucepan, place the butter, brown sugar, and honey. Melt them together, stirring with a metal whisk. Once they come to a boil, remove the pan from the heat.
- Add the vanilla and flour. Now stir in the vanilla extract and flour.
- Add in the chopped almonds. Using a spatula, mix in the almonds.
- Scoop out the dough. Scoop out 1/2-tablespoon-sized scoops of the cookie dough onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat, or parchment paper. Place each scoop at least 3 inches apart.
- Preheat the oven. Preheat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. While you’re waiting, roll each scoop of cookie dough into a ball and then place it back on the baking sheet.
- Bake. Put the baking sheet in the oven on the center rack and bake for 8 minutes, turning once halfway, at the 4-minute mark.
Pro Tip: Make sure to place the cookie dough a few inches apart since they will spread quite a bit while baking.
- Melt the chocolate. While the lace cookies are baking, melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl until fully melted. Stir at intervals to make sure the chocolate doesn’t get scorched.
- Assemble the Florentine cookies. Take one cookie and spread a little bit of the melted chocolate on the back of it. Then place another cookie on top, the backside facing the chocolate.
- Set and serve. Allow the chocolate to set for about 1-2 hours. Then serve.
Recipe Tips
- Use almond flour- Almond flour or fresh-ground almonds are responsible for not just the delicious flavor, but also the texture of these lace cookies. If you replace almond flour with all-purpose, these cookies will not spread to become thin and crispy, so stick with the almonds.
- Trim the edges of your cookies- If your cookies come out a little irregular, you can trim them with scissors into circles, so they sandwich together just right.
- Keep an eye on your melted chocolate- When microwaving chocolate, stop it every 15-30 seconds to give it a stir. This keeps the chocolate from scorching and not being heated a moment more than necessary.
FAQs
It might be that you used too much all-purpose flour, which does not spread. The almond flour is necessary because it lacks the elasticity found in the gluten in the regular flour. Using mostly almond flour will ensure that the cookies spread.
Chewiness is mostly determined by moisture. Brown sugar adds more moisture to these florentine cookies than white sugar. And the almond flour is more moist than regular flour. The melted butter and honey also add great chewiness.
Serving Suggestions
These Lace Cookies with chocolate are all crunchy cookie, gooey chocolate, and rich flavor. They taste amazing on a cookie plate, served with cakes, pies, and other sweet treats.
- Cookies: Make a cookie platter with these cookies plus some Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Monster Cookies, White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies, and Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies.
- Cakes/Pies: Serve them with a slice of New York Style Cheesecake, Chocolate Cream Pie, Flourless Chocolate Cake, Tiramisu Cake (VIDEO).
- Sweet treats: Enjoy these Florentine Cookies with Chocolate Caramel Pretzels Bars, Candied Pecans, Apricot Rugelach (VIDEO), or Chocolate Dipped Almond Biscotti.
- Beverages: Serve them with a Iced Matcha Latte, Hot Chocolate, Pumpkin Spice Latte, or Iced Caramel Macchiato.
Make This Recipe in Advance
Make ahead: You can take the cooled cookie dough you’ve prepared and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap, then refrigerate it for up to 3 days. Let it come to room temperature, then complete the baking and add the chocolate filling.
Storing: To store these Florentine cookies, place them in an airtight container with parchment paper in between the layers. The lace cookies can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Freeze: You can take your baked and filled lace cookies and place them in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before serving.
More Tasty Cookies!
Watch the Full video on how to make these Florentine Lace cookies!
Full Recipe Instructions
Lace Cookies with Chocolate (Florentine Cookies)
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup almonds finely chopped
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup golden brown sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate melted
Instructions
- Place 1 1/2 cups of whole raw almonds into a food processor and pulse them on high speed until they chop up into fine crumbs. Then set them aside.
- In a medium saucepan add 1/2 cup unsalted butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/4 cup honey. Stir using a metal whisk.
- Once it comes to a boil, turn the heat off and remove the saucepan from the heat.
- Then stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 3 tbsp all-purpose flour.
- Now, use a spatula to mix in the finely chopped almonds. 
- Then scoop out about 1/2 tablespoon-sized scoops of the cookie dough onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat. If you don’t have a silicone mat, parchment paper works too. But the mats will result in more even baking.
- Make sure to place each scoop of the lace cookie dough at least 3 inches apart. They will spread a lot when they bake.
- Now preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Then take each piece of cookie batter and roll it out to a ball, and place it half onto the baking sheet.
- Place each baking sheet in the center rack (one at a time). Then bake for 8 minutes making sure to turn once after 4 minutes.
- While the cookies are looking, melt 1 1/2 cups of semisweet chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl until fully melted. Always be sure to do this in intervals with stirring in between to avoid scorching the chocolate.
- Now take 1 Florentine cookie and gently spread a little bit of the melted chocolate on the back of it, then place a similar sized cookie on top. So you want the back of each cookie to sandwich the chocolate in between them.
- Let the chocolate set for about 1-2 hours before serving.
Notes
- Use almond flour- Almond flour or fresh-ground almonds are responsible for not just the delicious flavor, but also the texture of these lace cookies. If you replace almond flour with all-purpose, these cookies will not spread to become thin and crispy, so stick with the almonds.
- Trim the edges of your cookies- If your cookies come out a little irregular, you can trim them with scissors into circles, so they sandwich together just right.
- Keep an eye on your melted chocolate- When microwaving chocolate, stop it every 15-30 seconds to give it a stir. This keeps the chocolate from scorching and not being heated a moment more than necessary.
Nutrition
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Jennifer says
Hey! My cookies didn’t harden… did exactly everything on your recipe… wondering if you had anyone say the same thing? Any suggestions? I’d like to try it again it tasted so good but they were floppy
Thanks!
Dina says
Hi Jennifer, great question! It sounds like you may need to just bake them a few minutes longer 🙂
Jo Melendez says
I have slivered almond not whole almonds would I still use the same amount of almonds 1 1/2 cups
Dina says
Hi Jo 🙂 It is ok to use the slivered almonds. It will be a small difference in quantity but it should be ok. Hope that helps. Let me know how it goes. 🙂
Betsy Rich says
I only have slivered almonds, do I still need 1.5 cups before grinding?
can’t wait to try these!
Dina says
Hi Betsy, I would measure the slivered almonds in a heaping cup so it makes up for the little air in between the nuts before grinding. I hope that helps 🙂
Jo Melendez says
So with slivered almonds you still use 1 and 1/2 cups is that correct
Dina says
Yes 🙂
Dianne Carrol says
I make my lace cookies with ground pecans. They are delicious. This is a nice change.
Dina says
Hi Dianne 🙂 Happy to hear you enjoyed my lace cookie recipe. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave your feedback! I hope you find more delicious recipes to enjoy from my food blog! 🙂
Gina says
My favorite cookie at the bakery just became my favorite cookie to bake!. Simple recipe and easy to follow. This was a huge hit!!
Thank you!!
Dina says
That is so awesome to hear Gina! I am thrilled to hear that you favorite cookie can now be made easily from your home! Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
Lupe says
Love them. Total hit at work. Everyone loves them. I
Dina says
I am so glad everyone loved these! 🙂
Lisa says
Can’t wait to try this recipe today! Can the recipe be doubled?
Dina says
Hi Lisa, yes you can double the recipe 🙂
Jane seales says
Recipe confusing recipe says all purpose flour but use almond flour and rolling cookies into a ball after placing on cookie sheets and put half on cookie sheet. Almond flour made cookies spread too much need some editingu
Dina says
Hi Jane, the recipe calls for both all-purpose flour and almond flour.
Viktoriya says
I made these cookies but they turned out soft and greasy, do you know why this happened?
Dina says
Hi Viktoriya, when I make these I also get some grease left on the silicone mat. That’s totally fine 🙂 They might be softer because they need to bake a little longer. The bake time can vary depending on how long you cooked the mixture in the saucepan. I hope that helps!
Essa says
I made these today for my mother in law’s Coronation street party this weekend. I didn’t think my normal go to of Brownies was quite in keeping with the theme!
Instead of honey, which I was out of, I used golden syrup (UK’s closest thing to corn syrup) – and added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon as the syrup is quite neutral in flavour compared to honey. I also used almond extract as I really don’t like vanilla. After a bit tweaking the oven temperature, which ended up being much higher at 190c/375f my cookies came out really well. I am not sure if this was due to the honey sub or my oven’s quirks. Either way I’m really happy with the delicious results so I shall definitely be making these again.
Dina says
Thank you Essa! I am so glad you loved this recipe! I appreciate your kind feedback 🙂
Cy says
We made the cookies and we used measurements but they didn’t spread with thin air cookie
Do you think we need to use almond flour instead of all purpose flour?
Dina says
There is a chance that the cookie mixture might have been overcooked. I have had something like this happen to me in the past when I overcooked the cookie batter in the saucepan.
Janice says
These cookies came out delicious! I really impressed myself. Lol. So easy to make. To get them in a perfect matching circle I used a round cookie cutter. I let them cool for a minute or so and then pressed the cookie cutter into them. When they were fully cooled the edges easily broke off. These cookies are now part of my annual holiday baking.
Dina says
Wow, Janice that is so awesome! I am so honored that these cookies made it to your annual holiday baking routine. Thank you so much for your sweet feedback. I really appreciate it!
Karen E says
I just found your YouTube channel today and was very happy to see how simple your recipes seemed to be.
It had me seeking our your web page to try making these. I appreciate all you are sharing with us.
simplyhomecooked says
Thank you so much, Karen! You have no idea how much this means to me 🙂 I am so happy you found my website!
Chelle says
Looks good! Can i use almond flour instead of the ground almonds?
simplyhomecooked says
Hi Chelle, technically you can. It just won’t have the same texture. Hope you love these Lace cookies 🙂
Rita says
Hi Dina,
Can I replace the regular all purpose flour to rice flour to make it gluten free. Thanks
simplyhomecooked says
Hi Rita, technically yes but I have never tried it with rice flour. I know that rice flour can have a stickier consistency. Corn starch would also be a good alternative. Hope that helps 🙂 I hope you love these Lace cookies!