Florentines are truly a most wonderful sweet treat! They are luxurious and of course, always made with love. For those not familiar with florentines, they are a treat that mainly appear during Christmas time, and given as gifts to friends and family. You can buy them in good European food stores, but they can often be very expensive, given the ingredients used.
In a nutshell, florentines are a thin cookie, made up of a caramel type base, which is coated on one side with your choice of chocolate, and then the top has a variety of dried fruits and nuts, making for a very pretty, festive looking treat.
You can choose your favourite fruits and nuts to go in these florentines, so don’t be afraid to experiment a little and add the things you love the most.
Here, Carina made a batch of florentines and the recipe has been adapted from a variety of sources to make it possible for our friends world wide to get the ingredients necessary to make these lovely treats. So let’s see what we have to do to get these into our kitchens. Happy baking everyone!
Recipe adapted from and a combination of Mary Berry and Delia Smith and made by Carina Duclos
Prep Time – 15 minutes
Cook time – 8 – 10 minutes
Yield – 20 pieces
Ingredients
50 g (2oz) butter
50 g (2oz) demerara / brown sugar
50 g (2oz) golden or corn syrup
50 g (2oz) plain All Purpose flour
4 red and green or natural glacé cherries finely chopped
50 g (2oz) finely chopped candied peel or raisins
50 g (2oz) finely chopped mixed almonds, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, peanuts. (You can choose your favourites!)
175 g (6oz) plain, milk or white chocolate or a variety of all three!
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (375°F). Line a baking tray with parchment paper. (If you don’t, the florentines will be very difficult to remove)
2. Put the butter and syrup into a pan. Heat until the butter melts, remove from the heat, then add all other ingredients apart from the chocolate. Mix everything well.
3. Place teaspoonfuls of the mixture on the baking sheet, about 1 inch apart then flatten with a back of a spoon.
4. Bake for about 8 – 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 2 – 3 minutes until they harden then using a palette knife, transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
*** If the Florentines become too hard to remove, put them back into the oven for a few moments to allow them to soften.
5. Now melt the chocolate in a basin over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
6. Spread a little melted chocolate over the flat base of each Florentine using a palette knife, and leave to set, chocolate-side up, on the cooling rack.
Store in an airtight container.
*** It’s quite common to make a variety of florentines, some with white, milk and dark chocolate, so you can do that instead of all one type of chocolate if you wish!
- 50 g butter 2oz
- 50 g demerara / brown sugar 2oz
- 50 g golden or corn syrup 2oz
- 50 g plain All Purpose flour 2oz
- 4 red and green or natural glacé cherries finely chopped
- 50 g finely chopped candied peel or raisins 2oz
- 50 g finely chopped mixed almonds walnuts, pecans, pistachios, peanuts. (You can choose your favourites!), 2oz
- 175 g plain milk or white chocolate or a variety of all three!, 6oz
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (375°F). Line a baking tray with parchment paper. (If you don't, the florentines will be very difficult to remove)
- Put the butter and syrup into a pan. Heat until the butter melts, remove from the heat, then add all other ingredients apart from the chocolate. Mix everything well.
- Place teaspoonfuls of the mixture on the baking sheet, about 1 inch apart then flatten with a back of a spoon.
- Bake for about 8 - 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 2 - 3 minutes until they harden then using a palette knife, transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
- Now melt the chocolate in a basin over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water.
- Spread a little melted chocolate over the flat base of each Florentine using a palette knife, and leave to set, chocolate-side up, on the cooling rack.
- Store in an airtight container.
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