GINGER AND ALMOND FLORENTINES
Brandy snap meets biscuit meets toffee, these are delicious as a sweet treat, but even better wrapped and given away as a gift. Laced with chopped crystallised ginger, sliced almonds and a orange zest, they’re finally dipped in chocolate to add to the party in your mouth!
Makes: 18 Prep time: 15 mins, plus setting Cook time: 15 minutes
50g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing the trays 50g soft brown sugar
50g golden syrup
50g plain flour
75g crystallised ginger, finely chopped 50g sliced almonds
1 orange, zest only
200g dark chocolate
65g white chocolate
1 Start by preheating the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/ gas 6. Line and very lightly grease three baking trays.
2 To make the florentines, place the butter and sugar in a medium pan along with the golden syrup and heat until the sugar has dissolved and there are no more granules.
3 Take off the heat and add the flour, ginger, almonds and zest and mix to thoroughly combine.
4 Take teaspoons of the mixture and pop six equal mounds on each tray, leaving plenty of room for them to spread. Bake for 8 minutes. As soon as they are light golden in the centre and just slightly darker on the outside, they are ready to take out. They are still fragile when very hot, so will need to rest for about 5 minutes before you even think about moving them.
5 Have a cooling rack ready and gently, using a palette knife, take them one by one to cool on the rack. Once they have cooled completely they are ready to dip. Now, traditionally they have one side covered in chocolate, but that doesn’t agree with me – where am I supposed to hold it without getting melted chocolate all over my fingers? So I like to half dip. No messy fingers and I get to taste the florentines two different ways.
6 So, melt the chocolates in separate bowls. Make sure to put the dark chocolate in a bowl deep enough for dipping the florentines. Add the melted white chocolate in swirls directly on top of the melted dark chocolate, then use a skewer to create swirls.
6 Take each round and dip half in, then pop out and leave to set on the tray with baking the paper that they baked on initially. Leave the chocolate to set and they are ready to eat!