The 2014 Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap is over for another year and all cookies have been sent to their swap matches. Many thanks to Love and Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen for the Herculean effort it must have taken to arrange all of the logistics for this year’s (and every year’s) swap! Kudos, guys!!! :oD

Swap number 2 is this fabulously delicious and delicate Florentine cookie! Even though the Canada Post delivery system probably used the tin for football practice and so many of the cookies were cracked and broken, I really didn’t care, considering how incredible these were! These crispy candy disks of awesome have been incredibly challenging to eat sloooooowly and make them last; hopefully I can give one to my sister as I promised this weekend….and then I can omnomnom the last couple with a guiltless heart! ;oD

Dark Chocolate Almond Florentine Cookies

by Amanda from Once Upon a Recipe

1 1/2 cups sliced almonds
3 TBSP. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 TBSP. heavy cream
2 TBSP. light corn syrup
5 TBSP. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

Pulse the almonds in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the almonds into a large bowl with the flour and salt and stir. Combine the sugar, cream, corn syrup and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture comes to a rolling boil and the sugar is dissolved. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Add the saucepan mixture to the almond mixture and stir to combine. Place in the refrigerator to cool, about 30 minutes.

Scoop rounded teaspoons of batter and roll into (tiny!) balls. Place on prepared baking sheet, leaving about 3 to 4 inches between each cookie since they spread a lot. I found it best to only bake six cookies at a time; otherwise they just ran into each other.

Bake 1 pan at a time, until the cookies are thin and an even golden brown colour, about 10-12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely. One other tip: If your cookies are misshapen when you take them out of the oven, use a metal spatula to gently reshape them (as they will be very malleable when they come out of the oven).

Melt the chocolate in a saucepan over low heat. Pair up cookies of equal size. Spread chocolate onto one cookie (be gentle!) and press carefully together with another cookie. Repeat with remaining cookie pairs. Once completely cool, store in an airtight container.