Tropical Florentines Recipes

TROPICAL FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°C (fan-forced).
• Grease & line oven trays.
• Strain the pasion fruit pulp - you'll need about 1/3 cup juice, discard seeds.
• Combine ginger, pineapple, papaya, coconut, cornflakes, nuts, milk & 2 tbsp passionfruit juice.
• Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of mixture about 5cm apart onto oven trays and press down slightly.
• Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool on trays.
• Combine chocolate with remaining passion fuit juice in a small heatproof bowl and stir over a small saucepan of simmering water until smooth.
• Spread chocolate over flat side of each Florentine & wave the fork over the surface to make a wavy pattern.
• Set at room temperature.

FLORENTINES (ITALY)

Steps:

• Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
• Pulse the almonds in a food processor until finely chopped, but not pasty. Stir together the nuts, flour, zest and salt in a large bowl.
• Put the sugar, cream, corn syrup and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a rolling boil and sugar is completely dissolved. Continue to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, then pour mixture into almond mixture and stir just to combine. Set aside until cool enough to handle, 30 minutes.
• Scoop rounded teaspoons (for 3-inch cookies) or rounded tablespoons (for 6-inch cookies) of batter and roll into balls. Place on prepared baking sheet, leaving about 3 to 4 inches between each cookie since they spread.
• Bake 1 pan at a time, until the cookies are thin and an even golden brown color throughout, rotating pans halfway through baking time, about 10 to 11 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve.
• Optional chocolate topping: Put the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with 1 inch or so of water to a very low simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching, the water. Stir the chocolate occasionally until melted and smooth. (Alternatively, put the chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Melt at 50 percent power in the microwave until soft, about 1 minute. Stir, and continue heat until completely melted, about 1 to 2 minutes more.)
• For sandwiches: Drop about 1/2 teaspoon chocolate onto on the flat side of half of the cookies and press together with remaining halves. Return to rack and let chocolate set.
• For chocolate decor: Drizzle melted chocolate over Florentines as desired. Set aside at room temperature until chocolate is set.

FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Line a heavy large baking sheet with parchment paper. Stir the almonds, flour and zest in a medium bowl. Stir the sugar, butter, cream, and honey in a heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the almond mixture. Cool the batter for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Using 2 teaspoons of batter for each cookie, spoon 8 mounds of the batter onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing evenly apart (the cookies will spread). Flatten the batter slightly with your finger.
• Bake the cookies until they are lacy and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Gently slide the parchment paper with the cookies onto a rack and cool completely. Transfer the cookies to paper towels. Repeat with the remaining batter, lining the baking sheets with clean parchment for each batch. (The cookies can be made up to this point 2 months ahead. Cool completely, then store airtight in the freezer. Defrost before continuing.)
• Stir the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until the chocolate melts. Spread the melted chocolate over the bottom of 1 cookie. Top with a second cookie, bottom side down, pressing lightly to adhere. Repeat with the remaining cookies and chocolate.

FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets with shortening and dust with flour.
• Stir cream and sugar together in a bowl. Stir in orange peel, flour, and almonds until combined. Drop batter in teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, keeping each cookie well apart from each other.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack, about 30 minutes.
• Spread bottoms of cooled cookies with melted chocolate using a spatula, or spear cookies on a fork and dip bottoms into chocolate. Let dry, bottoms-up, on waxed paper.

FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C/gas 4. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a small saucepan over a low heat, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat and whisk in the flour then add the cherries, flaked almonds, pistachios and orange zest.
• Scoop 10 flat tbsp of the mixture onto the baking sheets, leaving room for them to spread. You will need to do these in batches. Bake for 10 mins until golden. Leave to cool for 2 mins until firm enough to lift onto a wire rack. Cool completely. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
• Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a simmering saucepan of water or in the microwave in 30 second bursts. Turn the florentines over on the wire rack. Spoon chocolate onto the base of each florentine and gently spread to the edges. When the chocolate is firm enough to hold its shape, use a fork to draw wavy lines across the chocolate. Leave to set and then store in an airtight container.

QUICK FLORENTINES

Steps:

• Heat the sugar, honey and butter with the cream in a small pan. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Add the almond flakes and ground almonds, take off the heat and mix everything well.
• Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160/gas 4. Use two teaspoons to form 35 small heaps on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly caramelised to a golden colour. If the mixtures separates, simply put it back into piles with the two teaspoons.
• Let the florentines cool completely. Melt the dark chocolate in a microwave or a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Using a pastry brush, brush the underside of each florentine with chocolate, place chocolate side up and leave to set.