Focus Magazines The local magazines for Abergavenny, Crickhowell, Brecon & Talgarth – Events, News and Advertising

florentines

Although we celebrated the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in May’s issue of the Focus, there are still plenty of Jubilee Celebrations happening throughout June. It’s also the season for school and church fetes and other outdoor celebrations which require something special and luxurious. These biscuits popped into my mind. They are delicious as part of an afternoon tea and super sellers at fetes when sold individually or in bags of 3 or 4. The ingredients list does look a little daunting, but the execution really is quite easy – you just need to be careful with the spacing of them on the baking sheet as they like to spread. Have a go, they are well worth the effort and look great!

Ingredients:

  • 25g butter
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 10g plain flour
  • 65 ml double cream
  • 50g ready flaked almonds
  • 50g ground almonds
  • 25g candied peel *
  • 25g candied ginger *
  • 25g glace cherries (chopped into pieces)*
  • 25g dried cranberries*
  • 150g dark chocolate (70-75 per cent cocoa)

 

* These ingredients can exchanged for candied fruit or dried fruit of your choice as long as the total of the ingredients comes to 100g.

  1. Pre-heat oven to 190C(375F)or 170C Fan, Gas mark 5.
  2. Melt the butter together with sugar and flour in a small heavy based saucepan over a low heat. Keep stirring until the mixture has melted.
  3. Add the cream gradually stirring all the time to keep it smooth.
  4. Now add the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the chocolate. Stir thoroughly and remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
  5. Whilst mixture is cooling, prepare two baking sheets. I usually use non-stick parchment paper but if you don’t have this brush baking sheets with some melted butter and lightly dust with flour, tapping the tins to remove any excess flour.
  6. Put a teaspoonful of the mixture on to the baking sheet, flattening each spoonful with the back of the spoon to make a neat circle. Be careful with your spacing – leave at least 2.5 cm between each.
  7. Bake on a high shelf in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until golden in colour.
  8. Remove from the oven and, if you need to, carefully re-shape with a knife and leave to harden for 2-3 minutes before carefully placing them on a wire cooling rack.
  9. When biscuits are cool, coat one side with chocolate which you have melted in a basin over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the bowl.
  10. Leave the chocolate to almost set, and then pattern with a wavy line by dragging a fork through the chocolate. Leave the Florentines to set completely before packing in an airtight tin.
Recipe by Pauline Mardell

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