Ingredients:
- 120g flaked almonds
- 50g pecans, finely chopped
- 50g mixed peel
- 85g raisins or sultanas, chopped
- 20g plain flour
- 45g unsalted butter
- 75g soft light brown sugar
- 55g golden syrup
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 200g dark chocolate (to decorate)
Method:
- Preheat oven to 160°C fan.
- Mix the flaked almonds, chopped pecans, mixed peel, raisins and flour together in a bowl, and set it aside.
- Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan over a low/medium heat for 4-5 minutes, or until the butter and sugar have melted and the mixture has thickened to a syrupy caramel.
- Remove from the heat. Stir in the salt, then add the dry ingredients.
- Spoon a dessert spoonful of the mixture into each cup of a non-stick muffin pan, and press it down with the back of the spoon.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. (If, like me, you’ve only got one muffin tin, bake in two batches.)
- Leave to cool for a few minutes in the muffin tin to allow the caramel time to harden. Gently extract the Florentines from the muffin tin with a teaspoon and transfer to a wire rack.
- While the Florentines are cooling, melt the chocolate in the microwave (a couple of minutes, with a stir in the middle, does the trick) or over a bain-marie.
- Use a teaspoon to coat the base of each Florentine with melted chocolate. Leave upside-down on the wire rack to cool.
- Store in an airtight container, and enjoy (ideally with a nice warm brew!).
Tips:
- Not a fan of raisins? Swap them for another dried fruit, such as cranberries. Similarly, if you’re not keen on mixed peel, swap it for glacé cherries.
- Don’t have a muffin tin? Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, and spoon the mixture onto that. Leave a few centimetres between each, as they’ll spread a fair bit.
- If you don’t have sea salt, substitute for table salt.