The Florentine recipe normally is a mix of finely chopped nuts with cherries and other fruits but I'm not a fan of fruits in cookies so I decided to leave them out and decided to make my Florentines just a caramelized nut biscuit coated in chocolate. You can't go wrong with that and it didn't disappoint. Au Contraire! I had to fight the husband away with a chair so I could get a picture before he devoured them.
I actually put the chocolate on in a few different ways to decide which was the tastiest. The half chocolate covered Florentine won the taste test due to the balance of chocolate and biscuit so that's the way I will do them in the future.
These were actually not difficult to make either (bonus!). It was fast and fun so I would highly recommend this for any event or gift.
I've been watching the Great British Baking Show and the base of this recipe is from that show.
Half Chocolate Florentine
(The color difference between the pictures is less than a 1 minute baking time difference so watch your Florentines carefully!)
Chocolate-backed Florentine.
The back picture is done by spreading the chocolate on parchment paper and then placing the caramelized biscuit in the chocolate until it dries. The front picture is just taking a spatula and spreading the chocolate onto the back and allowing it to dry chocolate side up.
They were ALL tasty so you really can't go wrong but we liked the half chocolate Florentine best.
Here's the recipe! Enjoy!
Florentines
Ingredients:
1.75 oz Unsalted Butter
1.75 oz Unsalted Butter
1.75 oz Brown Sugar
0.88 (7/8) oz Honey
0.88 (7/8) oz Corn Syrup
1.75 oz All-Purpose Flour
1 oz Almonds, Finely Chopped
1 oz Walnuts, Finely Chopped
8 oz Plain Chocolate (I used 56% Semisweet Baking Chocolate)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 3 (or 4) baking trays with parchment paper. Heat the butter, sugar, honey and corn syrup over low heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat and add the flour and nuts and stir until well mixed. Make 18 (or 24) Florentines by spooning a heaping teaspoon (or a flat teaspoon for a little smaller Florentine) onto the trays with 6 to a tray. Give them plenty of room to spread. They will spread surprisingly! Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Watch them at the end. They can overcook quickly. Leave the Florentines to cool on the tray for a few minutes and then move to a cooling rack to harden being careful not to break the biscuit. They are quite delicate...well at least mine were. :) If the Florentines become to hard to remove then pop them back in the oven for a minute or two to soften and try again.
Use a double boiler or a heat proof bowl over a pan with simmering water to melt half the chocolate until it reached 127 degrees F stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add the remaining chocolate stirring gently until the chocolate has melted. Using a spatula, spread the chocolate onto half of the front of the Florentine. Simply wipe the back of the Florentine to remove the excess chocolate and swirl the chocolate on the front of the Florentine. Place the Florentine on the pan to harden (back side down). Voila! Store in an airtight container if they don't get devoured immediately.
