*For those unfamiliar with clotted cream the BBC have a pretty good glossary that explains what it is just click here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/glossary/c.shtml?clotted_cream
This post will have both a recipe for the cookies then later today I will add my secret clotted icecream recipe that some of my colleagues have been trying to sweet talk me out of for years.
Florentine Cookies © Kevin Ashton 2007
I have to confess I don’t know the origin of these delicious cookies but I can tell you the first time I saw them was in Amsterdam many years ago. For some reason it’s not widely know but Holland has some very skilled chocolate artisans. People who could make anything out of chocolate or marzipan, from very realistic fruit to miniature scrimshaw work. In deed the artistic competition was so fierce that unveiling your new creations to the public was akin to a art gallery opening a new exhibition. So jealously guarded were these unveilings that for several days before hand they would cover up their shop windows. I walked past one such shop window and found to my disappointment several dusty sheets and groups of rusty tools and lengths of thick chain sitting on a woodworker’s bench. On closer inspection I realized that everything in the window even the wooden bench was actually made from marzipan and chocolate.100g (4oz) unsalted butter
150g (6oz) caster sugar
50g (2oz) honey
70ml ( ¼ cup) Whipping cream
pinch of salt
grated peel of ½ lemon
180g (7oz) sliced almonds
40g (1 ½ oz) finely chopped candied orange peel
10 maraschino cherries halved
100g (4oz) melted dark chocolate 70%
100g (4oz) melted milk chocolate
1. Grease 2 or 3 baking trays and line with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 175 C gas mark 3 ½.
2. Mix the butter, honey, cream, salt and lemon peel in a medium non-stick saucepan.
3. Bring to the boil and then cook on a low simmer for 4-5 minutes, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and leaves the sides of the saucepan.
4. Remove from the heat and add the sliced almonds and candied orange peel.
5. Place heaped teaspoons of mixture onto the prepared baking trays spacing them well apart then flatten them slightly using the wet back of a spoon.
6. Bake Florentines for 10 minutes or until they are golden brown.
7. Press a drained half cherry on each cookie after you take them out of the oven.
8. Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes then use a oiled cookie cutter to make the cookies circular (if necessary) then transfer to a cooling rack
9. Spread some of the dark chocolate onto half the cookies on the non-cherry side, then use the milk chocolate to coat the remaining cookies.
10. Just before the chocolate sets use a fork to make a swirl pattern on them.
Chef’s Tip
Melt the chocolates in your microwave, using short blasts for 20-30 seconds at a time until smooth and melted. Keep the chocolate warm by covering with cling film.
© 2004-2008 All rights reserved. No content on this website including, but not limited to, text and photography may not be reproduced without prior explicit written consent.
