Florentines

I first came across Florentines when watching the Great British Bake Off a couple of years ago, but it hasn't been until recently I started to research and experiment with recipe's. These delicate, nutty biscuits are the perfect January treat- Lacy, light and not too fattening. So here's my recipe for lacy Florentines....

Ingredients

• 55g nuts of choice -I used Almonds and Hazelnuts (Add more nuts if you want more nutty)
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter
• 55g sugar
• 3 tbsp honey
• ½ tsp salt
• 55g plain flour
• 1 tbsp orange zest (optional)

• 50g Dark Chocolate
  
  
  

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 190℃.
2. Coarsely chop or crush with a rolling pin or use a food processor to crush the nuts into larger and smaller chunks.
3. Place the nuts, butter, sugar, honey and salt together in a saucepan and melt together on a medium heat, when the butter, sugar and honey is one uniform caramel turn the heat up to a high heat and then allow to boil for 1 minute.
   

   
4. Take off stove and sift the flour into the caramel mixture, stir vigorously until a very wet batter/ dough is formed, if you are including orange zest stir it in too.
5. Dollop teaspoon amounts of the mixture onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment- leave plenty of space for spreading. This mixture should make 24-16 florentines so 2-3 baking sheets will be needed. Bake for 6 minutes or until golden brown.
   
6. Allow the florentines to fully cool before removing them from the baking sheet.
   
7. Melt the dark chocolate over a Bain Marie or in the microwave. Drizzle the melted chocolate over one side of each Florentine, using a piping bag or just drizzle using a spoon/ fork.

Enjoy!