Chocolate Florentines Recipe

Possibly one of the easiest things to make! Tastes delicious, and makes quite a lot. They also last a fair while, so a good treat to have in the fridge in case you have visitors! (like you really need an excuse)

You will need:
50g margarine
100g soft brown sugar
1 egg
55g desiccated coconut
100g chopped nuts
70g chopped glace cherries
70g sultanas
300g plain chocolate cake covering
(this is more ideal than chocolate, as it doesn’t set as hard – making it super easy to cut into squares)

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees C. Line a tray with foil (mine is a deep rectangular roasting tray, which is slightly larger than an A4 piece of paper – I don’t know the exact measurements) and break up your chocolate cake covering into pieces. Spread evenly around the tin and place in the oven for a few minutes until it melts. Of course, you can melt the chocolate over a pan of boiling water – but this is so much easier and makes for less washing up.

While the chocolate is melting, beat together the margarine and sugar, then add the egg and beat again.

By this time the chocolate should be melted. Spread it around the base of the tin with the back of a spoon to create a thin layer of chocolate. Pop the tray into the freezer for 5 minutes or so to let the chocolate set.

Meanwhile, add the nuts, cherries, coconut and sultanas to the sugar, marg and egg mixture and combine. Take the cold tin of chocolate out of the freezer and cover it with the topping. Spread it thinly over the top – mine really was thin – almost to the point where I thought I needed more mixture, but I didn’t. Phew!

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until slightly golden on the top. You might need a little longer if your tray is smaller and the mixture thicker.

Once cooked, remove and set in either the fridge or freezer. Then tip out and cut into squares!

These are super cheap, quick and easy to make. And the best thing about them is that once you’ve bought the ingredients, you could easily make another 2-3 batches with everything you have in stock! (Clearly a great thing if you need to whip up something fast with no time to go to the shops! So buy extra packets of cake covering – at 62p for 300g it’s a third of the price of the really cheap value chocolate!)

Another thing I like about Florentines is that they’re naturally gluten-free so there is no substitution of flour. This, I think, is the best way to cook gluten free as there is no compromise. Half an hour (ish) to whip up a treat? Beauty.