Easy Florentines Recipe

Aussies are really into Florentines. Whether they're Florentine slices or Florentine cookies, I see 'em errywhere here in Oz! Intrigued, I decided to take a stab at making the damned crunchy thangs for myself. Oh, and the results were astonishing!

I followed Coles' instructions (recipe below) on how to make Florentines with the utmost precision. This was a bright idea, as I determined what I liked and didn't like about Coles' recipe. I found that the Florentines Coles' recipe produced begged for more nuts and tasted a tad too sweet (kudos to Ray for helping me figure out what was awry about the batch). Inevitably, I've developed my very own recipe for Florentines that happens to suit my sweets steez to a T. Give it a go, if you dare!



Easy Florentines Recipe

Ingredients

200g block milk cooking chocolate, chopped
2 1/2 cups Corn Flakes
3/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup roasted mixed nuts, chopped
2/3 cup condensed milk
2 tsp cinnamon

Preparations

1. Using a whisk, melt chocolate chunks in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Spread the liquid chocolate over the base of a baking pan (We used an 8" round baking pan, but a rectangular/square-shaped baking pan will do just fine. Also, we didn't have any parchment/baking paper to line the pan with. Fear not; the base need not be lined with paper). Place in the fridge to set, about 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 160d Celsius.

2. Roughly chop nuts on a cutting board with a large chef's knife. Place nuts evenly on a baking pan lined with foil. Insert pan into the 160d Celsius oven. Roast for 5 minutes, then remove the nuts from the oven.

3. Mix Corn Flakes, raisins, dessicated coconut, nuts, condensed milk and cinnamon in a large bowl. Press the mixture evenly over chocolate base and bake for 15 minutes until golden and firm (Bake for longer if you prefer crunchier Florentines). Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Once cooled, remove from baking pan and using your hands, break into uneven chunks.



Feel free to alter this basic recipe to your liking. Since I'm not a big fan of dried fruit (i.e. dried pineapple), I've used only raisins in my recipe. And because I'm a huge fan of shredded coconut, I've added it in my recipe for a little added zing! I would suggest using salted mixed nuts, as they'd provide a nice contrast with the rest of the sweet ingredients. Lastly, I'd encourage everyone to experiment using dark chocolate in this recipe instead of milk. Or perhaps, using dark chocolate and milk chocolate, a 50/50 split. Lookin' forward to hearin' how it all goes dowwwwwn.