I’d better caution that I do not dip my Florentines in chocolate, preferring to taste the nuts, fruit and baked fudge in these snappy little biscuits. I like this version because they are less sickly, and so good to have alongside asummer sorbet or light ice cream. If,however, chocolate-free seems an aberration, it is very easy to restore the chocolate to the recipe.
Not that anyone is sure of the origin of the recipe. It sounds Italian, but is more likely to be French. The use of cream in the recipe would give a clue to this, and also the fact that while sweet, Florentines are not as sweet as most Italian biscuits and cakes.
The mixture itself is very easy to make. The harder part is judging the thickness and quantity to spread on to the baking sheet before baking, and being absolutely sure not to overcook them. A perfectly cooked Florentine is lacy, with small cavities, crisp, pale in the centre and gold around the edges. If they cook to too dark a colour, they simply taste bitter.
You might, if you have access to a supply, use fresh shelled cobnuts in place of hazelnuts for this recipe. The almonds are essential but other nuts can be substituted for the hazelnuts like pistachio or macadamia nuts; dried figs, large raisins or undyed glacé cherries can be swapped for the sultanas.
MAKES
10-12 individual Florentines
INGREDIENTS
225g/8oz hazelnuts, skinned
105g/3¾oz unsalted butter
175g/6oz caster sugar
270ml/9½fl oz double cream
300g/10½oz flaked almonds
150g/5½oz golden sultanas
15g/¾oz flour, sifted
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Prepare two large baking sheets, lining them with baking parchment (if you have one baking sheet, make these in twobatches).
Chop the hazelnuts roughly by hand and set to one side. Put the butter, sugar and cream in a pan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add the flaked almonds, fruit and sifted flour and mix very gently but thoroughly until well coated with the butter and sugar mixture.
There should be room for six Florentines per baking sheet. Spoon a heaped tablespoon onto the sheet, then spread it out to a circle about 8cm in diameter. Given the mixture is lumpy, it is hard to say how thick the discs should be, but half a centimetre is ideal. If there are small gaps within the discs the size of your little fingernail, it doesn’t matter – the sugar mixture will spread during cooking. But keep the edges tidy, neatening them with a knife.
Bake for approximately 10-11 minutes until golden at the edges and pale gold at the centre. Allow to cool for several minutes before carefully transferring ontoa rack.
Your letters
A number of Baking Clubbers are keen to make bread using a “sourdough starter” – the wild yeast leaven used in traditional breads – and have written to ask where they might obtain one. “How, apart from having a friend in the right place at the right time, does one go about procuring a sample of starter?” asks Pat Bruce. Jul Blackman is also curious. “May I have a recipe for sourdough starter?” she writes.
Sourdough is tricky to explain in the context of recipes and obtaining ingredients, and the best option for anyone who wants to make sourdough, whether they make the starter themselves or procure one from another baker, is to go on a course – see below. A starter is a ferment of wheat flour with water which produces yeasts and acids which, when “fed” or refreshed regularly with further flour and water, thrive. When used in place of commercial yeast, it produces bread with a greater depth of flavour and a wonderful, slightly chewy texture.
There are recipes for starters in baking books, but the care of it and an understanding of the nature of this type of bread-making are also essential, or it can taste awful. It is not like using a recipe as such, more like following your instincts. I recommend the following courses: The Lighthouse Bakery (Ockham, East Sussex) European Baking course (07946 530969; 01580 831271; lighthousebakery.co.uk); The School of Artisan Food (Welbeck, Notts) has a number of baking courses (01909 532171; schoolofartisanfood.org); and the Panary Baking Course at Cann Mill, the producers of Stoates Flour (01747 823711; panary.co.uk; stoatesflour.co.uk).
Next week, raspberry and amaretti cake: raspberries, amaretti biscuits, double cream (400ml) flaked almonds, butter, caster sugar, SR flour, three eggs and two15-20cm 'sandwich' cake tins
