On the sixth day of Christmas (Florentines)

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me six geese a laying... or in my case a successful batch of Florentines. These are so simple and easy to make, it really is just a case of mixing all the ingredients together, baking them and finally spreading on some melted chocolate. The best part is that the florentines look very festive and they taste really good. Nice and sweet, with a bit of chew and a bit of crunch. Just what the doctor ordered, well actually a doctor would probably not order this due to the sweetened condensed milk - what a silly saying! Or perhaps just not the correct saying for this situation. Anyways that is besides the point, these florentines are easy and yummy, and they keep for a month in an air-tight container in the fridge - so they are great for Christmas presents. So what are you waiting for? Go make some :)


Florentines (from The Australian Women's Weekly - The Christmas Book)
Makes about 35

60g cornflakes
80g sultanas
35g dried currants
60g red glace cherries, chopped
60g green glace cherries, chopped
105g slivered almonds, toasted
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
200g dark chocolate, melted

1. Combine cornflakes, fruit, nuts and condensed milk in a large bowl and mix well.
2. Drop level tablespoons of mixture about 4cm apart on oven trays covered with baking paper.
3. Bake at 180C for 8 minutes, or until browned lightly. Cool on trays.
4. Spread bases of florentines with chocolate; make wavy lines in chocolate with fork just before chocolate sets.

Spread the bases with chocolate...


Make a swirly pattern on the bases with a fork...


Then try not to eat them all...


Oh and if you have some left over chocolate why not make some chocolate freckles. Just spread little circles of chocolate on baking paper then cover with 100s and 1000s and allow to set. Yummy...


Rating?
5 out of 5 reindeers!

Cornflake Cookies

Have you had a really good cornflake cookie before? You know the ones - the right amount of crunch from the cornflakes, the right amount of chew from the cookie dough and the right amount of sweetness from the sultanas. Well this recipe did not produce those cookies. Dang it. There were way too many cornflakes so the cookies were almost impossible to put together. In fact a lot of them fell apart after been baked.


Total disaster.

Have you got a tried and true recipe for cornflake cookies? I would love to steal it if you do, so please let me know.

For now here is my dodgy recipe...

Cornflake Sultana Cookies (from The Australian Women's Weekly Basic Cookbook)
Makes about 25

5 cups cornflakes
1 cup coconut (desiccated)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup sultanas (I used raisins)
1 cup self-raising flour
185g butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Combine cornflakes, coconut, sugar, sultanas and sifted flour in large bowl.
2. Stir in butter and eggs gently with a wooden spoon.
3. Shape rounded tablespoons of mixture into balls (yeah right, that was nearly impossible).
4. Place balls about 5cm apart on greased oven trays.
   
5. Bake at 180C for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
6. Stand cookies for 3 minutes before cooling on a wire rack.