Healthier Florentine Cookies

I love florentine cookies. Because not only are they delicious, they're actually pretty healthy too... for a cookie, that is.  They're made almost entirely of almonds, plus a little egg white and sugar. That's it. No flour, no butter, no oil.

But I thought I'd try to make them even healthier by swapping out the sugar for less-refined pure maple syrup, and adding in various healthy seeds, like chia, sesame, pumpkin & flax.
It worked wonderfully. They make for a truly guilt-free snack. And they're high in protein, which makes them a great snack for kids too. My 2 year old loved them, so toddler-approved.

Read on for the recipe....

 ^^ classic florentine / black sesame florentine ^^

^^ chia seed florentine / pumpkin seed florentine ^^

Healthier Florentines
(Makes about fifteen 2-to-3-inch cookies)

Ingredients:

- 1 3/4 cup slivered almonds
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsp pure maple syrup (or 1/3 cup powdered sugar) *See note below about sweetness
- About 1/3 cup healthy mix-ins of your choice (flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, coconut, pine nuts whatever!)

*The original recipe calls for 1/3 cup powdered sugar, and the resulting cookie has just the right sweetness level. I exchanged the powdered sugar for 3 tablespoons of pure maple syrup, and the cookie was just ever-so-slightly under-sweetened. Adding more maple syrup, however, would be a waste, as it will just pool at the bottom of the bowl and won't actually add extra sweetness to the final cookies. You could, however, sprinkle the cookies with cane sugar just before popping them into the oven. Or use 1/3 cup of another non-liquid sweetener of your choice instead.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 315 degrees F (if using maple syrup as the sweetener). Use 325 degrees F if using the  powdered sugar.  Line a baking tray with parchment paper (optional: brush the parchment paper lightly with oil - this helps the cookies peel off easier, but it is not necessary).

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.

Place a spoonful of mixture onto the baking sheet. Using a fork dipped in cold water, delicately spread out/flatten into a circle shape. Make sure not to leave big spaces between the almonds as you spread them out. They may look like they won't hold together, but as they cook the sugar & egg white form a candy that binds the almonds together. The cookies do not spread out or expand as they bake, so you can fit as many on a single tray as you like, as long as the individual cookies aren't touching each other.

Bake at 315 degrees until golden brown (18-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the cookies).

Allow them to cool on their baking tray, then gently peel the parchment paper off the cookies one by one.