ALMOND FLORENTINES RECIPES

Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4 and line one or two baking trays with baking paper.

Put the butter, sugar and 50ml cold water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then cook over a high heat for around 5 minutes or until the mixture just begins to turn a pale caramel colour around the edges. Don't stir it; just remove from the heat, and leave to cool for a few minutes. Add the crème fraîche, almonds and vanilla seeds to the pan and gently stir through.

While the mixture cools to warm, separate the egg and whisk the white in a clean bowl until it begins to froth, then fold through the almond mixture.

Spoon the mixture onto the tray/s in small mounds and spread with the back of a spoon to make 12 circles about 2-3cm apart.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a rich golden colour all over. Carefully slide the baking paper/s onto a cooling rack. Leave until the florentines are cold and firm.

Melt the dark and white chocolates in separate glass bowls set over simmering water. Cover the undersides of the florentines evenly with the dark chocolate. Leave for a few minutes before dragging the prongs of a fork down the undersides. Pour the white chocolate into a piping bag and pipe lines across the dark chocolate. Leave chocolate-side up on a cooling rack to set.

Cook's tip: Non-stick baking parchment makes it so much simpler to get these biscuits off the baking trays. You can simply use well-buttered baking trays, but be careful not to leave the florentines for too long or they will harden before you have a chance to lift them off.

Prep time: 25 minutes, plus setting. Cook time: 15 minutes.

Start by preheating the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/ gas 6. Line and very lightly grease three baking trays.

To make the florentines (and these are so easy I think you will be making them again), place the butter and sugar in a medium pan along with the golden syrup and heat until the sugar has dissolved and there are no more granules.

Take off the heat and add the flour, ginger, almonds and zest and mix to thoroughly combine.

Take teaspoons of the mixture and pop six equal mounds on each tray, leaving plenty of room for them to spread. Bake for 8 minutes. As soon as they are light golden in the centre and just slightly darker on the outside, they are ready to take out. They are still fragile when very hot, so will need to rest for about 5 minutes before you even think about moving them.

Have a cooling rack ready and gently, using a palette knife, take them one by one to cool on the rack. Once they have cooled completely they are ready to dip. Now, traditionally they have one side covered in chocolate, but that doesn’t agree with me – where am I supposed to hold it without getting melted chocolate all over my fingers? So I like to half dip. No messy fingers and I get to taste the florentines two different ways.

So, melt the chocolates in separate bowls. Make sure to put the dark chocolate in a bowl deep enough for dipping the florentines. Add the melted white chocolate in swirls directly on top of the melted dark chocolate, then use a skewer to create swirls.

Take each round and dip half in, then pop out and leave to set on the tray with baking the paper that they baked on initially. Leave the chocolate to set and they are ready to eat!