I won't lie, when I watched this week's episode I thought about sacking this project in. Florentines? Really? Has anyone in the history of anything found any time to make Florentines ever?
I would guess at no. However, today was a particularly sleepy Sunday and I don't wanna quit this until at least episode 6. So here you are: my attempt at Florentines. Brace yourself.
The Ingredients:
- 50g butter
- 50g demerara sugar
- 50g golden syrup
- 50g plain flour
- 25g of glacé cherries or dried cranberries, finely chopped
- 50g candied peel, finely chopped
- 25g almonds, finely chopped
- 25g walnut pieces, finely chopped
- 150g plain chocolate
The Recipe:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a baking tray with with baking parchment.
- Carefully weigh out the butter, sugar and syrup into a small pan and heat gently until the melts.
- Take the pan off the heat and add the flour, cherries (or cranberries), candied peel and walnuts to the pan and stir everything together. It'll form a pretty sticky (and reeeeeeeally tasty) mixture.
- So, this recipe is meant to make 18... Mine made 15 of varying sizes. The easiest way to do it is to do one baking tray at a time, I reckon. Spoon out 6 or so dollops onto your lined baking tray, pop in oven, bake for 8-10 mins, take out, leave to cool for a fews minutes, transfer to a cooling rack, rinse, repeat until you run out of mixture. Make sure you leave lots of space between the mixture on the tray.
Beautiful! If I do say so myself.
Let's take some time out for a second.
We need to talk about tempering the chocolate. If you're not aware, tempering chocolate is when you use a thermometer and other bits of kit to precisely measure the temperature of your chocolate as you melt it and then cool it down again.
It's meant to keep your chocolate shiny and give it a nice 'Snap'.
Six words:
Ain't. Nobody. Got. Time. For. That.
Maybe I'll have a go at it one day. But today was not that day, even though Lady Mary Berry's recipe specified it. Guess what I did, reader?! I melted the chocolate, I spread it on the cooled biscuits, did the funny cute zigzag thing with a fork, and that was it. AND THEY STILL LOOK GOOD.
So yes, if you find a recipe for these things that demands you get tempering, sack it off and do the lazy thing. They will be just as good and people will be just as impressed and everything will be fine. FINE.
I'd never eaten a Florentine before. They're pretty good! A bit weird - they're like biscuits for grown ups. If you eat one with a brew, you feel a bit fancy, ya know? I'd recommend making them, too. You'll impress your pals and probably yourself and they're not even that difficult.
I have no idea when I'll get time to make next week's Technical Bake but it's bread week and I l-o-v-e making bread, so I'll find the time, for sure. Until then, happy Florentine-making!
Bake more...! #pleeeaaasseee
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