Florentines

Never go to the gym before baking! Seriously. If you do arm exercises before whisking the crap out of something it’s going to hurt. It’s a long boring story but I now go to the same gym as my husband. The Thew is very serious about keeping fit and has a few fairly intense challenges to complete this year so I’m in supportive wife mode; joining him for some training runs and now going to the gym with him. He seems to like the company and is actually very good at being motivating as long as he thinks you’re working hard. Anyway this Monday morning there were some medicine ball lifts and my arms now hurt – a lot.

To be honest I didn’t really think about the work involved in making the Florentines I had decided to try out this week. It's only baking after all. I’d asked around my office what I should make and someone mentioned them. I remembered that someone else who had missed out on my mega baking last week liked them so it made sense to give them a go. Florentines are one of those things that I'm surprised that I like. Candied peel and glace cherries aren’t general the ingredients in these days of cupcakes that do it for people but when you bake them in a caramel type sauce ... well it’s just a thing of beauty.

If you’re going to make these – and I do recommend it, even after the pain – then maybe prepare some of the ingredients beforehand. There is some chopping which is fairly boring. I did mine the night before watching ‘Man vs Food’. Also the sauce needs to be smooth which is where the whisking comes in – quite a bit in my case! I'm not sure an electric one would work, you just need to whisk the heck out of it with a balloon whisk. If I’m honest I think this is one of those recipes you’ve got to make a few times but the bonus is that I think regardless of how it goes you’ll enjoy what you end up with. Sadly The Thew wasn’t in supportive husband mode as he declared they looked like little puddles of cat sick when they came out of the oven. He did amend that later once they were finished but quite frankly the damage was done as far as I was concerned!

Ingredients

100g blanched almonds, chopped into a variety of sizes (I’m going to try this with flaked almonds next time)
100g chopped candied peel (you could find whole stuff and chop it yourself but I have no idea where you would buy it in the normal world)
40g glace cherries, chopped
25g butter
90g caster sugar
15g plain flour
150ml double cream
Melted chocolate – white, milk and/or dark (about 200 - 225g in total)

1.    Preheat the oven to 190°/GM5. Find a non-stick baking tray. I’d tell you to grease a regular one but who has time? Just use a non-stick and it will be fine.

2.    Put the butter and sugar into a saucepan and melt them. It will be a fairly robust melt that foams and stays fairly solid when mixed (or maybe I did it wrong!) Add the flour and mix like a white sauce. It made a sandy sort of mixture but I think it’s meant to go into a ball. I don’t think it matters much but I will be trying these again as you don't want the sugar/butter to burn but you need to leave it on long enough to melt.

3.    Take off the heat and add the cream whisking to make a smooth sauce. This is where the mega whisking comes in. As the cream hits the hot mixture it cools it and it goes lumpy. Just chuck back on a low heat and whisk like crazy. Or be less impatient and put a little cream in at a time so it doesn't make it cold quickly.

4.    Once smooth put the fruit and almonds in and mix together. See not that bad really!

5.    Then put heaped teaspoon fulls on the tray leaving a healthy gap as these suckers spread. Flatten them out a little bit. Bake for 9-11 minutes – it depends on your oven but you want the edges to go golden brown.

6.    Take out and leave to cool for about 5 minutes before taking off the tray and cooling completely.

7.    Now melt whatever chocolate you want. Once melted use a pastry brush to add layers of chocolate to the flat side until it’s nice and thick. I put them in the fridge in between layers as I’m impatient. Some would finish the chocolate with a squiggly pattern but my hands were so covered in chocolate I just gave up.

This makes 25 - 30. When I try these again I'll refine the recipe if I learn anything new.