I Tried Making Florentines For The First Time : Here’s How I Got On
24th December 2025 - New Experience Number 39.
As part of my challenge to try 52 new things in a year, I decided to try making florentines for the first time on Christmas Eve — partly for the experience, and partly as a festive treat to share with family over the holidays.
Florentines aren’t something I buy often, but I always enjoy them when I do indulge. I’d never thought about making them myself because they looked far too fiddly and impressive for my limited baking skills. Still, I decided to pop on my pinny, roll up my sleeves, and give them a go.
Spoiler alert: they turned out far better than expected, and I’ll definitely be making them again.
If you’ve ever considered making florentines at home, here’s how I got on — along with a few tips I learned along the way.
What Are Florentines?
Despite sounding Italian, (especially as the name sounds like they were influenced by the Tuscan capital), it is thought that these sweet and nutty biscuits actually originated from France.
However, there may indeed be a link back to Italy. There are suggestions that the chefs in the palace of Versailles were tasked with creating a new biscuit to show their admiration of the Medici family, particularly French Queen, Catherine de Medici, who originally came from Florence.
There are also arguments that the ingredients used to make florentines are more typical of French bakers than Italian.
Well, whatever the true lineage of them, I was making them in my kitchen in York.
Florentines are often described as biscuits, and they are at the sticky and chocolatey end of the biscuit scale.
They might look delicate, but they pack a punch in richness. Often small roundels of a baked caramel, nut, and fruit combination, prettily patterned with a light chocolate lacing. And, they’re very, very, moreish.
Finding A Florentine Recipe
I’d found a recipe online, but when my incredibly talented baker friend, @traydelicious heard about my planned baking antics, she shared her recipe with me.
Amongst the preposterously delicious brownies and show-stopping meringues that she sells on her stall in Shambles Market, she also offers some best-selling florentines. There was no question about which recipe I was going to use.
Ingredients For Making Florentines For The First Time
One of the brilliant things about florentines, is that you can get really creative with them. Essentially, they are a mixture of nuts, dried fruits, and caramel. You can mix and match the ingredients to suit your personal tastes.
I did stick to the recipe as I liked everything that went into them, but I might get a little more adventurous next time I make them.
- Plain flour
- Butter
- Condensed Milk
- Glace Cherries
- Pistachio nuts
- Chopped almonds
- Walnuts
- Milk chocolate
Making The Homemade Florentines
The method was easy. The fiddliest and most time-consuming part was chopping all of the nuts which I did by hand.
Firstly I mixed the chopped nuts and cherries together. Then I made the oozingly smooth and gooey caramel sauce, and stirred the nuts and cherries into it.
Placing spoonfuls of the mixture onto the lined baking trays, I was aware of how much the raw combination looked like joke-shop sick.
Thankfully, they came out of the oven looking perfectly golden brown.
The caramel bubbled around the nuts and cherries as they baked, filling the kitchen with the comforting smell of Christmas, until 12 minutes later I took them out to cool.
They were a little larger than the ones you can buy in shops, and they were definitely not perfect circles, but I think that lends them a more rustic and home-baked charm.
Melting the milk chocolate, I then added a haphazard drizzle across each of the biscuits, and I think those bad boys looked pretty good!
The Tasting
It took a lot of will power to wait until the chocolate drizzle had cooled before we took our first taste.
Biting into the homemade florentines, they were the perfect combination of chewy, gooey, nutty sweetness. They were sooooo good.
I took some with me as we visited family over the Christmas break, and everyone who tried one had been impressed, so I think it’s safe to say that these are going to be a new baking tradition for my festive season!
Top Tips For Making Florentines for the First Time
- Don’t worry if they are not all equal in size and appearance, that’s what makes them unique.
- However, if you do want your biscuits to look more regimental, you could always bake them in a muffin tray.
- If you’re spooning the mixture on to a lined baking tray, leave space between them as they will expand as they bake.
- Get creative with your ingredients; switch out cherries and pop in raisins if they’re more you’re thing; omit the fruit entirely and stir in some chocolate drops; chop different nuts if you have a preference; you could even combine pieces of biscuits and see how it works out. These are a brilliant biscuit for experimenting with.
Why Trying Easy New Things Matters
I love the fact that trying something you’ve never done before doesn’t have to be grand or extreme to make a difference.
Whilst I found making florentines for the first time to be straightforward, I had a brief moment of doubt about the appearance as I put the unappealing raw mixture into the oven.
Through baking something I’d never baked before, I discovered the aromas of Christmas, the indulgent flavours, and the pleasure of sharing my creation with others. It was a super cosy experience, and one I’m definitely going to repeat.
Want To Try It Yourself?
- There are lots of recipes available for making your own home made florentines.
- I was going to follow the BBC Good Food Florentines recipe until my friend shared hers with me.
- Take a look online for a recipe that you like the look of for your first attempt.
Cost Of Experience
- I had many of the ingredients in the cupboard already.
- If you needed to start from scratch and buy all of the ingredients for the first time, it would cost around £16.25.
- The cost will depend on where you shop.
Recommendations
- Decide on size. If you go free hand when making your florentines, you can decide on the size you make them. You could make lots of smaller biscuits, or some giant treats instead.
- Leave space. Don’t forget they have a tendency to spread in the oven, so leave space between them unless you want one large tray of florentine. Actually that could be quite nice!
- Get creative. You could try to add designs or different chocolates for the finish.
- Take pictures. Let me know how you get on if you try making florentines for the first time – I’d love to see pictures of the results!