Students – Florentines

Ingredients for 70 servings:

• 220 g flour
• 1 tsp, leveled baking powder
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
• 3 tbsp milk
• 100 g margarine or butter
• 40 g butter
• 80 g sugar
• ½ pkt. vanilla sugar
• 1 ½ tbsp honey
• 4 tbsp cream
• 300 g mixed nuts (trail mix)

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour

the ultimate Christmas cookies

What makes these cookies special is the trail mix. Don’t go for the cheap stuff, which consists almost entirely of peanuts and currants, but rather a good nut mix with almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts (you might want to break them up again), and plenty of cashews. I use one 200g bag of the nut mix, add a few cashews, quartered walnuts, and hand-picked sultanas until I get to about 300g. The cookie base is baked without any sugar, and the cookies taste sweet enough thanks to the caramel topping. Preparation: Make a smooth dough, chill again if necessary, roll out thinly, and cut out round cookies (approx. 4-5cm in diameter). Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Preheat oven to 175°C (meanwhile, weigh the ingredients for the caramel mixture). Bake the cookies for about 7 minutes until light golden brown, then let them rest on the baking sheet. While the cookies are pre-baking, prepare the caramel mixture. Caramelize the butter, sugar, vanilla sugar, and honey in a pan over high heat until light brown, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat, stir in 3 tablespoons of cream until the sugar is dissolved, then add the trail mix. Return to the heat and mix in the trail mix until everything is heated through and coated with the liquid caramel. Spread the nut mixture over the cookies using 2 teaspoons. If it becomes too tough, reheat. Bake the filled cookies for another 7 minutes at 175°C. Once completely cooled, store in a tightly sealed container. Caramel would absorb moisture in the air and become soft. I also always make half a tray of Studiflos without raisins, because some people just don’t like them, and put them in a separate container for storage.