Ginger and almond florentines
These gorgeous chewy, chocolate coated florentines make a beautiful gift, if you can bear to part with them!
Traditionally they have one side covered in chocolate, but that doesn’t agree with me – where am I supposed to hold it without getting melted chocolate all over my fingers? So I like to half dip. No messy fingers and I get to taste the florentines in two different ways.
Ingredients
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú soft brown sugar
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú golden syrup
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú plain flour
- 75²µ/2¾´Ç³ú crystallised ginger, finely chopped
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú flaked almonds
- 1 orange, zest only
- 200g/7oz dark chocolate
- 65²µ/2½´Ç³ú white chocolate
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Line and very lightly grease 3 baking trays. To make the florentines, place the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved and there are no more granules. Take off the heat and add the flour, ginger, almonds and orange zest and mix to thoroughly combine.
Take teaspoons of the mixture and pop 6 equal mounds on each tray, leaving plenty of room for them to spread during baking. Bake for 8 minutes. As soon as they are light golden in the centre and just slightly darker on the outside, they are ready. They are still fragile when very hot so leave to rest for about 5 minutes before you even think about moving them.
Have a wire rack ready and gently, using a palette knife, transfer them one-by-one to cool on the rack. Once they have cooled completely, they are ready to dip.
Melt the chocolate in separate bowls. This can be done by placing the chocolate bowls over saucepans of gently simmering water, making sure the bowls do not touch the water, or in the microwave in short bursts. Make sure to put the dark chocolate in a bowl deep enough for dipping the florentines. Add the melted white chocolate in swirls directly on top of the melted dark chocolate, then use a skewer to create swirls.
Take each biscuit and dip half in, then leave to set on the trays with the baking paper that they baked on initially. Leave the chocolate to set and they are ready to eat!