Christmas Florentines

These traditional Italian biscuits are made from a combination of a caramel biscuit mix crammed full of fruit and nuts, and a thick chocolate base. Topped with edible gold decorations, they are the perfect home-made Christmas gift.

Christmas cookies

Ingredients

  • 50g/1¾oz butter

  • 50g/1¾oz demerara sugar

  • 50g/1¾oz golden syrup

  • 50g/1¾oz plain flour

  • 2tsp mixed spice
  • 25g/1oz glacé cherries, roughly chopped

  • 50g/2oz dried berries & nuts (I used cranberries, blueberries & sultanas in this berry & nut sprinkle pack from Waitrose)
  • 25g/1oz almonds, finely chopped

  • 200g/7oz milk chocolate

  • edible gold stars and gold balls

Method:

  1. Line two baking trays with silicon sheets or grease and flour (don't use greaseproof paper as the biscuit will stick to it).
  2. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
  3. Heat the butter, sugar and syrup in a small saucepan and stir together until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and add in the flour and mixed spice, stir through thoroughly.
  4. Add the dried fruit and nuts to the pan. Stir well to mix.
  5. Place six desert spoon sized dollops of mixture onto each baking tray, leaving plenty of room around each one for it to spread during cooking.
  6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until golden-brown.
  7. Leave the florentines to cool before lifting onto a cooling rack using a palette knife.
  8. Use a bain marie or place a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (without letting the bowl touch the water) to melt the chocolate over the heat.
  9. Spread a teaspoon of melted chocolate onto another silicon baking tree, spreading it around to create a flattish disc. Place each biscuit part of the florentine onto a chocolate disc. Add the gold balls and decorations to the biscuit topping while still soft.
  10. Chill to set the chocolate and remove from the silicon tray.
  11. Store in an airtight container.

Christmas fruit and nut cookies

Waitrose have conducted a survey which shows that people enjoy giving homemade Christmas desserts and baked treats as a gift at Christmas. The majority of respondents thought that a homemade gift means more than a bought one as it shows more thought and effort has been put into it. Waitrose have a wide range of tasty treats and DIY desserts which are ideal for gifts this Christmas.

I was sent a gift voucher in order to purchase the ingredients for this post.

christmascountdown

Co-hosted by
Zing Zing Tree, BluebearwoodRainy Day MumThe Boy and Me, The Sensory SeekerAdventures Of Adam, Thinly Spread, Best Toys For Toddlers, The Gingerbread House, My Little 3 And Me, The Mad House



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Comments

  1. says

    Pinning these straight onto my edible gifts Pinterest board – I always make a mountain of homemade sweets and treats for my very large family at Christmas and these will be a fab one for the children to help with!

  2. David says

    2 tsp Mixed Spice – we don't have that in the shops here. What's in it? I could make my own. Guessing cinnamon might be one ingredient, maybe pimenta, cloves?

    • David says

      It's ok, found it via websearch, for others also wondering, here it is:

      Here is a typical blend of spices used to make mixed spice:
      1 Tbs ground allspice
      1 Tbs ground cinnamon
      1 Tbs ground nutmeg
      2 tsp ground mace
      1 tsp ground cloves
      1 tsp ground coriander
      1 tsp ground Ginger
      Blend all spices together, and store in a sealed jar away from light.

Trackbacks

Leave a Reply to Emma (My Little 3 and Me) Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.