Florentines

Cooking process

• Measure out the butter and in the saucepan. Heat until the butter has melted and mixed with the sugar.
  
  
• Chop the candied peel finely.
  
  
• Measure and add the , flaked almonds and candied peel.
  
  
• Mix together. It seems very crumbly. Make sure that the butter and sugar mix gets spread evely, and doesn't clump into big bits.
  
  
• Put spoonfuls of mixture on paper on baking tary. This does 8 florentines. If stuff falls off, put it back onto the little piles.
  
  
• Cook for 10 minutes.
  
  
• The florentines spread out and bits fall off. After removing the tray from the oven, try to push stuff together. Leave to cool for 10-15 mins. Slide a knife underneath and turn them over (see first picture above).
  
  
• Melt the in a bowl over boiling water. Spread the chocolate over the florentines.
  
  

Other ideas

• These are small amounts, but they do take a whole tray. I suspect the proportions do not have to be accurate.
  
  
• I just say "chocolate". You can do plain, milk or white chocolate as you chose. Plain chocolate is easier to melt than milk or white chocolate. I used milk chocolate above. The chocolate does help to keep the florentines together.
  
  
• I've used flaked almonds and candied peel. I did this partly to use up candied peel from Christmas! The taste of the peel comes through, so better to use reasonable quality peel. You could also use glace cherries or other nuts.
  
  
• The main problem was how crumbly the florentines were. I wonder if there should be more butter and sugar mix, as this holds it together. Also perhaps they could be cooked in a tart tin (for individual tarts).
  
  

Punk Florentines

I wasn't happy with the recipe above, so tried a different idea. I made a toffee and added the flaked almonds while the toffee was still liquid. Then I put a few chocolate buttons at the botttom of a small tart tray, and added spoonfuls of the almond mix on top, and beked them for a short time.

The proportionss were roughly 1.5 (almonds) to 2 (butter) to 3 (brown sugar). I dissolved the sugar in a small amount of water, then added the butter, and cooked it for a bit (but not too much or it will burn!) The oven cook was the same temperature as above for 10 mins. Wait for a bit before turning them out. They took a bit of time to harden.

I had hoped that the chocolate buttons would melt and form the normal chocolate layer. They did melt, but kept their shapes, so added the chocolate taste, but looked a bit weird! The toffee was quite granular. But they did taste nice! (And finished off the flaked almonds, which was the intention). Using a small tart tin meant that the florentines were neat edged.

© Jo Edkins 2025 -