Florentines

I have been wanting to make Florentines for years.  When I saw Annabelle Whites name on this recipe,  I knew this was the one.  I hate it when I see cornflakes in shop bought Florentines,  these are the real deal with flaked Almonds.
I tripled the recipe,  but will publish the original amounts.  The one in the photo was baked in a muffin top tray,  lined with silicon.

Ingredients
70g butter
75 g sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons of sour cream
25 g mixed peel
50 g currants or sultanas
110 g sliced almonds
10 glazed cherries,  sliced into quarters
4 knobs of preserved ginger,  sliced into thin pieces
1 cup of chocolate buttons.

Method

Set oven 180 o C

Weigh butter and sugar into TMX bowl and dissolve sugar,  100 / speed 3 / 6 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients,  except for Cherries and Chocolate.
Set REVERSE, mix on speed 1 for 5 seconds.
Tip into bowl and fold gently so that all almonds are well coated.

These are best baked in silicon cup cake containers or containers lined with silicon sheets.

Bake 10 to 15 minutes.  The mixture should bubble and a few brown spots should show on some of the Almond flakes. 
They are baked and left to cool in the containers.  Then removed. And the chocolate added to the back.
The Florentine in the photo was baked in a muffin top tray.
The cherries were added just prior to placing in the oven.
Annabelle's instructions are for cup cake size Florentines.  A tablespoon on the mixture is placed in each cup cake and pushed down with your fingers.


Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly brown.

Melt chocolate in dish in microwave, stirring  every 30 seconds.
Spoon melted chocolate on to back of large Florentines or place liquid chocolate into small zip lock plastic bag with a tiny hole in corner and pipe thin threads of chocolate across top of Florentines.

Lemon Tea Biscuits

These 'freezer' biscuits are novel in that they are made with Lemon Flavored tea. The TMX is perfect for grinding the tea.  The original recipe did not suggest that they would be suitable to freeze,  but I tried it and they froze beautifully.
makes 30+ biscuits.
Set oven 350 o C FF

Ingredients
4 teaspoons of lemon flavored tea. ( I used 4 tea bags of Lemon Twist, Twinnings)
1/2 cup sugar
240 butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons of Lemon Extract, ( I used food safe Lemon Oil )
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
2 cups of plain flour

Method
Grind tea and sugar, speed 10 / 20 seconds
Add butter and mix, speed 4 / 20 seconds
Add salt, lemon Extract and Vanilla and mix, speed 4 / 10 seconds
Fold in flour on REVERSE.
Look in the hole in the top and stop machine once incorporated.
Roll into 2 logs.
Firm up in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Slice of discs about 1 cm thick and bake for 15/20 minutes.

Or you can freeze logs to use later.

Spicy Cauliflower Fritters

Although there are several recipes for Cauliflower fritters or patties,  this is a little different.  The original recipe was in the Age and the recipe by Steven Manfredi.   It has a mild Middle Eastern flavour.

This is 1/2 the recipe , so can easily be doubled.  I shallow fried the patties and reheated in the Air Fryer.  The 1/2 mix made 12 small patties, 7x4 cm.  I served them with Sweet chilli sauce.

160 g cauliflower
60g plain flour
1 1/2 tablespoons of parsley ,
1 clove garlic
1/2  an onion
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon of ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric
Salt and pepper to taste.
1 tablespoon of oil

Method
Cut cauliflower into small pieces
Steam cauliflower in Varoma until soft, ( 25 mins) set aside
Tip hot water out of bowl and rinse in cold water to cool bowl.
Add onion , garlic and parsley and chop, speed 5 for 10 seconds.
Add eggs, flour and spices and mix for 5 seconds.  Scrape down and mix, 2 seconds.
Add warm Cauliflower and mix on speed 5 for 2 seconds.  Mix should be a bit chunky.
Heat oil and fry until brown.  Flip and cook other side.
Remove and place on hand towel.