Florentines

Delicate, crisp, nutty, seedy. My perfect Florentine.

Content warning: this month’s newsletter discusses an eating disorder.

Photo: Ruth Barry

For many years I starved myself. During that time, I'd go through the featured recipes on the BBC Good Food website, looking for the lowest-calorie ones, and then make detailed meal plans for the week. While shopping for ingredients at Waitrose, I'd do my best to ignore the maple-iced donuts and palmiers and everything custard-filled in the bakery aisle. But on the days that there were mini Florentines, I’d buy a single disk, about the size of a milk-bottle cap.

They were chewy instead of crisp and contained glacé fruits. In truth, they weren’t very good, but they gave me a taste of freedom that I didn’t usually allow myself. I could pretend to be the kind of woman who didn’t waste great stretches of time thinking about how a long-ago casual lover had once referred to my belly as “3-D.”

Years later, when I ritually overworked instead of starving myself, I started to make Florentines in my bakery. They were quite different from the Waitrose minis: wafer-thin, delicate, and crisp, with only flaked almonds. No glacé fruit came near them. They were dipped in tempered dark chocolate. And I enjoyed them without wishing I could hack chunks from my hip bones to make myself smaller.

Photo: Ruth Barry

This recipe is adapted from that version. It’s gluten- and egg-free, and I added pumpkin, sunflower, and sesame seeds to the almond mixture, creating a tussle between sweet and savory. When you’re spreading out the mixture, try to imagine making a single layer of nuts and seeds. In the case of Florentines, thinness really is the goal! Tempering the chocolate is what we Scots would call a faff and requires a thermometer. It’s highly recommended but optional. You can always use simply melted chocolate, but be prepared for messy fingers when you’re eating the cookies. They also won’t keep as well. A very nice thing about this recipe is that you can cut the Florentines to a size that feels good to you. Mini or massive, the choice is yours.

Photo: Ruth Barry

Florentines

Makes 16 (or however many you like)

• 90 grams (a scant ½ cup) sugar

• 50 grams (3.5 tablespoons) cream (crème fraîche works nicely too)

• 35 grams (2.5 tablespoons) unsalted butter

• ½ teaspoon kosher salt (¼ tsp for all others)

• 150 grams (approximately 1 ½ cups) flaked almonds

• 65 grams (approximately ⅓ cup) pumpkin seeds

• 65 grams (approximately ⅓ cup) sunflower seeds

• 20 grams (2 generous tablespoons) sesame seeds (black or white)

To finish (optional):

• 250 grams dark chocolate (60-70%), finely chopped

Equipment:

• Thermometer for chocolate tempering (I use a Thermapen)

• Small saucepan

• Baking sheet (I use one that is 30 x 35 centimeters [approximately 12 x 14 inches] yours should be at least that big)

Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. If you’re using a baking sheet larger than 30 x 35 centimeters, use a pencil and ruler to draw out a rectangle of this size on your baking parchment and flip it over so the pencil marks are on the bottom side of the paper. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (355ºF).

Add the sugar, cream, butter, and salt into a small saucepan and set over a low heat. Mix together to combine, and allow the mixture to boil briefly until the sugar crystals are completely dissolved. Remove from the heat.

Add the almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds into a mixing bowl and toss together. Pour the cream and butter mixture into the bowl and stir until everything is well coated.

Photo: Ruth Barry

Transfer the mixture to your baking sheet. Use a heatproof spatula or a large metal spoon to spread the mixture into a 30 x 35 centimeter rectangle. Bake in the center of the oven for 8–10 minutes, or until caramel brown. Keep a close eye on the oven, as the mixture will burn easily.

Remove from the oven and, while it’s still hot, use a sharp knife to divide the baked Florentine mixture into 16 pieces, or however many you wish. Allow to cool until firm on the baking tray, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

You can use the cooling time to temper the chocolate. Add half of the chocolate to a heatproof bowl and melt over a bain-marie. Allow the chocolate to reach 55ºC (130ºF), then remove the bowl from the heat. Add small handfuls of the finely chopped, unmelted chocolate into the bowl and stir constantly until completely melted. Don’t add more until the previous handful has fully melted. The melting will slow considerably as the melted chocolate cools. Use a thermometer to measure the temperature until the chocolate reaches 28ºC (82ºF). Don’t worry if you haven’t used all of the unmelted chopped chocolate. If any unmelted chunks of chocolate remain in the melted mixture once it reaches 28ºC, fish them out. Your chocolate is now ready to use.

Working as quickly as you can, dip one side of each Florentine in the melted chocolate. Use a spatula to scrape off any excess, then place on the cooling rack, chocolate side up, to set.

Once set, the Florentines will keep very well in an airtight box.