Florentines

The letter for this months alpha bakes is F. I had a few ideas, none of which were initially florentines. However whilst flicking through John Whaites book I saw his version and realised a) I have never made one and b) I have never eaten one.

So florentines it was. I did change his recipe a little so have my version below.

Florentines

makes ~15

60g butter
50g light brown sugar
15g golden syrup
50g sultanas, chop any big ones
30g dried apricot, roughly chopped
100g salted peanuts, roughly chopped
25g plain flour
50g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C FAN and line two/three baking sheets with baking parchment.

Mix the dried fruit, nuts and flour in a bowl. Gently melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup, when fully melted tip into the dry ingredients and stir until fully combined.

Drop heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes until golden. Leave to cool on the baking sheets.

Once cool they can be peeled from the baking paper. Melt the chocolate and drizzle over the florentines.

These were pretty simple to make, I have a few different sizes, clearly I did not heap my teaspoon very evenly!

My first ever florentine did taste pretty good. Personally I think I would prefer my fruit, nuts and chocolate in an actual cookie but that is personal preference I guess.

Apricot frangipane tart

This is the second of two desserts that I created for Easter weekend. Coincidently the letter for this months alpha bakes was announced a day later, it is 'A'. So I going to enter my tart with 'A' being for apricot and almond.

I knew I would like this tart, but I was not aware just how much! I am looking forward to trying different combinations of fruit and frangipane as different fruit comes into season.

Short buttery pastry, soft frangipane and juicy fruit. What's not to love?

Apricot and frangipane tart

for the pastry

85g cold butter, cubed.
175g plain flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
2 egg yolks

For the frangipane

140g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
140g ground almonds
50g plain flour

tin of apricot halves

First make the pastry. Rub the butter and flour together until they ressemble breadcrumbs then stir through the sugar. Add the egg yolks and two tablespoons of ice cold water and use a knife to cut through the mixture until it starts to come together. Use your hands to bring al the dough together as one. You may need to add a little more water depending on the size of your egg yolks.

Wrap the pastry in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Alternatively refrigerate overnight and remove from the fridge and hour before you wish to use it.

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C FAN. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the pastry and line a 23cm tart tin. I used my long one from lakeland (36cm in length) which worked very well. Trim the excess pastry, prick the base with a fork, line with baking paper and fill with baking beans, or rice. Bake for 10 minutes then remove the baking beans and paper. Bake for a further 10-15 minutes until golden and biscuity.

To make the filling cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy then beat in the eggs. Finally fold in the ground almonds and flour.

Spoon the frangipane filling into the pastry case and level the top. Place the apricot halves on top, in whatever pattern you desire.

Bake the tart for 30-35 minutes until cooked and golden. 

Leave to cool in the tin for ~20 minutes and when the tin is cool enough to handle remove the tart and allow to cool.

Two mugs assist in removing the sides of my loose bottomed tin!

This tart can be served slightly warm or at room temperature. I served it with a vanilla chantilly cream which complemented the tart perfectly.

It was also lovely the second day slightly warmed through in the oven. All in all a resounding success.