BAKED: Cherry and Stem Ginger Florentines

For me, this time of year it's all about the Christmas bakes! I love the classic mince pies, stollen and edible gifts - all great for family, friends and foodies alike. My Dad is a big Florentine fan, so I whipped a few of these up for him over the weekend, slightly amended from the Hairy Biker's recipe.

All you need for 6 large florentines is:

2 tbsp butter

80g golden caster sugar

2 tsp flour

75 ml creme fraiche - I used reduced fat

2 tbsp mixed peel

2 tbsp stem ginger - the crystallised stuff

50g glacier cherries

150g galaxy chocolate - roughly broken into pieces

Let's get started...

1. Preheat the oven to 180 (fan assisted) and grab a baking tray to line with baking parchment.

2. In a medium sized saucepan, gently heat your butter, caster sugar and flour - make sure you stir it constantly or it will stick to the bottom! The butter needs to have melted and the sugar needs to be dissolved before the next step.

3. Stir in your creme fraiche - again, make sure you stir it constantly so it combines properly.

4. Throw in your almonds, peel, ginger and cherries - mix mix mix!

5. Place teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto your baking parchements - make sure they're spaced out because it'll spread as it heats up more and more.

6. Bake for 10-12 minutes (if your oven isn't fan assisted you'll probably be better with the oven heated to 200 and around 15 minutes cooking time - BUT every oven is different so always keep an eye on what'cha got cookin') or until golden brown. Make sure you keep your eye on them - as I said, the mixture spreads so you make need to intervene after 5 minutes or so to make them more circular again.

7. Once they're all nice a tanned, remove from the oven and leave to cool down for 5 minutes or so before transferring them to a cooling rack.

8. Once they're cooled, get to work on your chocolate - grab a small saucepan and, with a little water in the bottom, bring a little bit of water to a simmer. In a heatproof bowl that will sit nicely on top of your saucepan, add the galaxy pieces and allow to melt slowly, stirring until smooth - make sure the bottom of the bowl isn't actually touching the water.

9. One by one, with the flat base side up, spread the melted choccy over the bottoms of your florentines.

10. Leave them to cool and the chocolate to set before serving.

Absolutely delicious with a cuppa or great to make a bulk load for a party or Christmas celebration. 

xo