Florentines are traditionally made using nuts and dried fruit. These biscuits have been around since the 17th century and are usually coated on one side with chocolate. Typically one would use candied cherries but I have made mine using citrus peel and dried cranberries.
Head straight on to the recipe for Florentines ♥
I am totally behind the concept of acknowledging where I source my recipes or ideas from, if the source is reliable. But I cannot see the point of acknowledging a person’s recipe when it is so wrong it either fails dismally or the ingredients listed are way off in their weights. I found a recipe for Florentines which I used as the base for the ones I have made here. The recipe called for 200g of chocolate to decorate the Florentines with. I decided I would not bother to coat all of them and blissfully went about melting 100g of dark chocolate. Well, I ended up covering all of the biscuits as I had more than enough chocolate! I used a total of 20g and wonder how on earth the extra zero found its way into the recipe. Was this a typo? Did someone actually road test the recipe once it was written up, or did someone just make it up as they went along?
Florentines
Ingredients
- 1 grapefruit, peel only
- 1 orange, , peel only
- 50 g butter
- 50 g fructose
- 50 g honey
- 50 g flour
- 25 g blanched almonds, finely chopped
- 25 g walnuts, finely chopped
- 25 g cranberries, finely chopped
- 20 g dark chocolate
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160° Celsius
- Bring a small pot of water to the boil
- Add the citrus peel and blanch for 1 minute
- Remove and refresh in a bowl of ice water
- Drain, pat dry and chop finely
- Weigh off 50g and set aside
- Place the butter, fructose and honey into a small saucepan
- Over a medium temperature heat until the butter and sugar melts
- Remove from the heat and add the citrus peel, flour, nuts and cranberries and mix until combined
- Using a teaspoon, place the mixture onto a lined baking tray, leaving space for spreading, and flatten slightly
- Bake for 10 minutes
- Turn out onto a wire rack to cool until completely cold
- Melt your chocolate over a bain-marie and brush on to the bottom of each florentine
- Leave to set and store in an airtight container
Notes
Click on the links for conversions and notes.
What I blogged June 16:
- two years ago – Haggis
- five years ago – Crayfish Pasta
You are so right, Tandy, way too much chocolate! Errors in measurements are quite often to be found even on famous food bloggers’ sites. Annoying when you end up with a full pot of melted chocolate, wait: you could whip some cream and mix it with the chocolate, either add it to your coffee to make a Brazilian coffee or simply enjoy it spoon by spoon!
Florentines are my favourite treats in winter, in summer they would melt away … You just gave me the idea to post the recipe in autumn, thank you so much.
I am still working my way through the chocolate in the form of hot chocolate when the mood grabs me 🙂
One of these would be lovely with a cup of tea.
Enjoy the holiday today Tandy.
🙂 Mandy xo
Thanks Mandy, we had a great day off work 🙂
My recipe calls for 250g of dark chocolate, but then I use two cups of corn flakes too!
Wow, that must make a decent batch 🙂
perfect little bite size!
They were lots of perfect bite size 🙂
Not something I have ever made, but I’d like to have a try, yours look lovely.
Thank you so much 🙂
Hi Tandy, I bet these still taste delicious, I’ve come across recipes that had a typo too and I did not realize it until the dish was completed. When I went back over the comments the problem was discussed but never changed in the actual recipe. Oh well……
That is so frustrating!
I have had such a bad sweet tooth lately. I would love to have some of these with my morning coffee!
Pity screen grabs don’t work for those cravings!
My husband LOVES florentines. 🙂 Where I lived in Washington, the local Dutch bakery made them without fruit, but they were sandwiched together with cream and then half dipped in chocolate. Delicious! 🙂
Wow, that does sound delicious 🙂
Yum florentines! Have never made them so thanks for the recipe Tandy. I’ve often followed recipes that have had some questionable cooking times-thankfully I have some common sense! Still not sure how they get away with it.
Common sense seems to be an important ‘ingredient’ 🙂
These look really delicious! I just tried cookies here in the Azore Islands of Portugal with dried fruits and cinnamon and fennel but they weren’t coated with chocolate. They were really interesting and delicious. I’ll have to try these.
I would love the fennel in them for sure 🙂
You can never have too much chocolate! Just joking. I have tried recipes that failed because the ingredients or the instructions were wrong. So annoying!
That is annoying!
Haha… I love it when you come across a recipe that clearly has not been road tested. Do you call them out? I do. 🙂
Your florentines look wonderful, would go down a treat with a sweetened cuppa tea I reckon.
I don’t call people out on their errors unless I have a ‘relationship’ with them 🙂
These look so incredibly good! It’s so frustrating when recipes are written incorrectly huh! Such a waste of time and money often when you follow a recipe and things don’t go to plan!
That is exactly how I feel!
Regardless of the recipe Tandy, they look like the turned out deliciously well. Lot’s of chocolate is not a bad thing:)
You are right, lots of chocolate is never a bad thing!
A typo I’m guessing. I have only ever attempted Florentines once and they weren’t very successful. They are considered very Christmassy here. Maybe I’ll have a go of your recipe.
I am sure they are a perfect Christmas cookie when you look at the ingredients 🙂