Florentines (Great British Bake Off)

As I said with the previous post, I am making some of the technical challenges from BBC's Great British Bake Off.

This week the challenge was to make Florentines - Italian, nutty, caramel biscuits covered on one side in chocolate.

To watch a  video of me making the Florentines, please click on the video below:


Equipment required:
heavy bottom pan
3 baking trays
greaseproof paper

The recipe:
Florentines
50g (1 3/4 oz) unsalted butter
50g (1 3/4 oz) demerara sugar
50g (1 3/4 oz) golden syrup
50g (1 3/4 oz) plain flour
25g (1 oz) dried cranberries, finely chopped
50g (1 3/4 oz) candied peel, finely chopped
25g (1 oz) almonds, finely chopped
25g (1 oz) walnuts, finely chopped
200g (7oz) plain chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (350 fahrenheit or gas mark 4). Brush melted butter over the baking trays and line with greaseproof paper.

Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a heavy based pan and slowly melt on the hob.  Once melted, remove from the heat and add in all other ingredients (other than the chocolate) and stir well.

This should make 18 florentines so spoon a teaspoon of mixture on to the baking trays leaving plenty of room between each one (6 per tray).

Bake for around 8-10 minutes until golden-brown. Be careful as they go from cooked to burnt quickly!  Leave to cool for a few minutes on the tray and then move to a wire rack.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water.  Ideally melt half of the chocolate to 53 degrees centigrade (127 Fahrenheit) and then add in the rest of the chocolate finely chopped and keep stirring until the chocolate gets to 26 degrees centigrade (79 Fahrenheit).  This is temper the chocolate and should give a shiny finish and help the chocolate set properly.  Spread chocolate on the base of the florentine and then when cooled a little use a fork to create a wavy pattern. Leave to set.

Iced Cherry Cake (as seen on Great British Bake Off)

If you live in the UK I am sure you are watching the new series of the BBC's Great British Bake Off. Each week they have a technical challenge and so I have decided to make these myself and video it and give you the recipe used on the show.

The first challenge was to make a cherry cake with lemon icing.  This is fairly straightforward cake but using a savarin mould and then adding lemon icing and decorating with cherries and almonds makes it looks great.

To watch a  video of me making the cherry cake, please click on the video below:




Equipment required:
Large mixing bowl
23cm/9inch savarin mould tin
Sieve
Electric mixer

The recipe :
Cherry Cake
200g (7oz) glace cherries
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
175g (6oz) softened butter
175g (6oz) caster sugar
1 lemon - zest only
50g (1 3/4 oz) ground almonds
3 eggs

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade (350 fahrenheit or gas mark 4). Brush melted butter over the savarin mould.

Cut the cherries into halves or quarters and then put in a sieve and rinse under running water.  Drain well and then dry using kitchen roll and then toss in two tablespoons of flour.

Put all other ingredients in a bowl and mix well with an electric mixer (or by hand). Fold in the cherries.  Spoon into the tin and spread evenly.

Bake for around 35 minutes until golden-brown and a cake tester comes out clean.  Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and the turn out onto a wire rack. Do not ice until completely cool.

Icing
175g (6oz) icing sugar
juice of one lemon
15g flaked almonds
5 glace cherries

Lightly toast the almonds in a pan until lightly brown (be careful they don't burn) and set aside. Cut the cherries in half.  To make the icing mix the icing sugar with some of the lemon juice - adding a bit at a time until the icing gets to a nice thick consistency.  Drizzle thickly over the cake and decorate with the almonds and cherries.