Thomas Fudge's Milk Chocolate Florentines, Pack of 8, 150g

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Turn the roulade out onto cocoa- dusted baking paper. Peel away the lining paper. Use a small sharp knife to gently score an indentation 1cm in from one of the shorter sides (don’t cut all the way through). Spread the Florentine cream over the roulade and roll it up from the marked end. Transfer to a plate. If you have silicone cupcake cases or moulds then you will soon also be the owner of extremely neat and tidy florentines. They look beautiful but cook slightly differently – as the honey/cream/sugar mixture is limited in its path of travel, you’ll get a denser and neater final product. It’s extremely crunchy as the nuts are essentially being deep fried in the syrup. I only have a metal tray and I cannot, in good faith, recommend using it for the baked florentines. They look beautiful but are impossible to get out of the tin.

Alternatively, you can spoon your mixture into cupcake tins (silicone or metal) and press the florentines into shape. This will give you a very neat finish.Mix the cooled melted chocolate into the yolk mixture, with a pinch of salt and 1⁄2 tablespoon of amaretto. Add the egg whites, mixing in a spoonful at first to loosen the mix, then fold in the rest in 3 batches. First, you’ve got a choice between lacy and nutty. Lacy florentines contain flour – they’re more like a traditional biscuit. The latter forgo the flour completely. I prefer my florentines to be (gasp) gluten-free and filled with nuts. I won't be covering lacy florentines in this newsletter. From this understanding of sugar temps, I realised that to get a chewy florentine I may not need to turn my oven on. A chewy florentine was going to be all about the digital thermometer. I dropped piles of the mixture on the tray (as neatly as I could) before putting them into the oven. Knowing that by 10ish minutes the mixture would be fully cooked, I was hoping to take the mixture out at the 7 min mark –at this point, I hoped – it would be golden but still with a little gooey give in the middle.

It’s these varying levels of water concentration that offer different properties to confections/candies. Burton’s Biscuit Co is to boost its presence in the premium biscuit market with the acquisition of Thomas Fudge’s. The lower the temp of the syrup, the softer your final product will be (higher water to sugar ratio) whilst the higher the temp, the harder your final product will be (low water to sugar ratio, will also be caramel flavoured)When it comes to baking the florentines, you’ve got two options: freeform or with a little help from a tin. Burton’s has bought the business from private equity firm Livingbridge, which acquired it in 2016 from the descendants of founder Thomas J Fudge. Originally a bread bakery, Fudge’s switched its focus to luxury biscuits in the 1980s, and produces Marmite biscuits made under license from Unilever. Do you really want to temper your chocolate? If so, good for you. I think that tempering chocolate is a noble pursuit and should always be congratulated. Simple enough, I thought. I decided not to divert too much from the classic method and dove right in, starting with the syrup. So in 2020, I’ve decided to finally take on this project and I call this: MISSION FLORENTINE. Welcome!

Pour the mixture into the lined tin, tilting the tray so that the mixture reaches the edges. Bake for 15 minutes until set and lightly springy. Leave to cool in the tin. Next up is contents: almond is the traditional choice but you can mix this up – pumpkin seeds or pistachios can look very festive, while sesame seeds can add some real magic. I’ve seen nut-free versions made with feuilletine or cornflakes. You also get to decide here if you want to include dried fruit or mixed peel. I personally love coconut flakes. salt - if you like crunchy bits throughout, stir salt into the nuts. Otherwise just mix into the honey/cream/sugar However, without the oven, how was I going to get the caramel flavour and beautiful golden colour? I cooked up a batch of the light brown sugar + honey + cream mixture and brought it to 116c before folding my nuts and fruit in. Given that this mixture doesn’t even see the oven, there’s no reason that the dried fruit can’t join the party from the outset. The result? Gorgeously chewy but hideously anemic.It wasn't until I tried the Thomas Fudge florentines that I felt I was finally in safe hands. Soft, chewy and hardly leaving a trace (other than the emotional one – they do make you very happy), these were my new holy grail.

Reserve a few Florentines to decorate, then chop the remainder quite small. Drain the amaretto from the soaked cherries into a mixing bowl. Add the icing sugar and cream and whip to soft peaks. Fold in the chopped amaretto- soaked cherries and Florentines. Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Put the chopped glacé cherries for the filling aside to soak in 2 tablespoons amaretto. Grease and line a 25cm x 35cm Swiss roll tin. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, then set aside to cool slightly. The box does suggest they are perfect for sharing but unfortunately there was no-one about, what a shame…. So over a cup of Tetley tea I munched my way through each chocolate number. Seriously moreish, each florentinewas deliciously chewy from the glossy caramel, the hazelnuts and almonds varied in size but were evident and come through with each bite, and the chocolate, albeit missing the signature wavy lines, was smooth and not at all synthetic or cheap tasting. My favourite was definitely the milk chocolate, the flavour and ratio was on point and complemented each other perfectly. The dark chocolate was the prominent all you could taste flavour and a tad off balancing, but still rather yummy. Oddly I thought the white chocolate florentine would be overly sweet however this wasn’t the case. To be honest it was pretty non-describ, I couldn’treally separate it from the nutty caramel and wouldn’t have known there was white chocolate on it had I not seen it. So in my eyes not really a florentine.The final choice is chocolate. In my eyes you’ve got three choices: dark, a not-so-sweet milk, or nothing – just leave them plain. I’m not usually judgemental when it comes to chocolate but I think white chocolate is pretty much out of the running for these (too sweet). My preference is dark chocolate for crunchy and milk chocolate for chewy I based the syrup on an almond decor I’d been shown at one of my first patisserie jobs: into a saucepan went a mixture of honey, light brown sugar and cream. Once bubbling, I folded in almonds, a little salt, raisins and coconut flakes. So, before we continue with all the science-y findings behind the florentines, it’s worth mentioning now that there are a few different sorts. If you don’t want a mix of chocolate, Thomas. J. Fudge’s Florentines also comein larger form and in separate boxes. I would definitely buy these again, I like the option of the mixed boxes to give some variety yet I would equally be swayed by the larger milk or dark ones. Bravo Thomas. J. Fudges, finally some yummy florentines without orange peel! I started this florentine journey with a read of Felicity Cloake’s very thorough article on them. The key to chewy florentines, I hoped, was by limiting the cooking time.