Mini Florentines

My Christmas Menu has been set for a month or so now (ok ok ok a good FEW months) and I have just been waiting for the time to arrive when it is reasonable to START the baking and preparing and all that.  I've ordered all the non-parishables and freezable goods to come early next week and all that is left to pick up are fresh veggies, cheeses and...of course...the smoked salmon (mum and dad's job) and now that it is only a couple of weeks until Christmas the baking has commenced!! 

I made a batch of pretty sad looking gingerbread last weekend and have conceded that they will have to iced in some form (I am not a fan of iced gingerbread...but aesthetics demand it this time around I am afraid!) and yesterday afternoon I turned my hand to making mini florentines.  

It took my practically all afternoon to turn out 3 and a half dozen chewy, buttery, chocolate coated two-bite florentines. And because they only bake for like 5 mins it was impossible to do anything else except sit in front of the oven...

I've seen florentines baked on tv and I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of the batter spreading (plus my baking sheet is dinky) so I used a mini muffin tin instead! It was great...but it meant that I had to wait for each batch to be totally cooled before I could pry them from the tin, which is what actually took the longest amount of time.  

I halved the quantities from  this recipe from BBC Good Food substituting Golden Syrup for the honey.  I love the idea of pouring the mixture straight into a baking tray and then cutting out shapes, which I think I will try next time.  I also have it on good authority that this recipe from The Pink Whisk is awesome as well.  

These were a first for me.  They were tricky only because they require a huge amount of patience and accuracy. Accurate measurements, accurate baking, patiently waiting for them to cool, patiently painting on the chocolate coating, patiently waiting to devour them at Christmas.  

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