Florentines with a chocolate base — crisp and fine

Put the butter, cream, sugar, glucose syrup and honey together in a pan. The order doesn't matter — everything goes on the stove at the same time.

Bring the mixture to the boil while stirring and take it to 110 °C with the thermometer. That number is the whole trick: below it, the mixture stays soft and the finished Florentines turn chewy over time; above it, the sugar caramelises too far and turns bitter. Use the thermometer, don't guess.

As soon as it reaches 110 °C, take the pan off the heat and add the flaked almonds. Mix well until every almond is coated with the sugar mixture.

Add the candied orange peel, candied lemon peel and the chopped candied cherries and combine everything well. If you don't like candied fruit, use the same amount of almonds or dried fruit — it won't change the mixture.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let it cool down briefly — just enough that you can touch it with your fingers. It mustn't cool completely, otherwise you can no longer press it into the mold.

Dip your fingers in cold water and press about 10 g of the mixture flat into the silicone mold for each one. The water is important: the mixture sticks to dry fingers. Press it flat, don't heap it — the mixture spreads a little more anyway while baking.

Carefully press the Florentines out of the mold and let them cool completely. While warm they're still pliable and break easily; once cooled they're crisp and can be placed neatly onto the chocolate base.

Temper the couverture — dark or milk, both work well. Without tempering, the base turns grey and soft instead of glossy and crisp, and it won't release cleanly from the mold either. You'll find a step-by-step guide in Tempering couverture and chocolate correctly.

You'll need about 90 g of couverture per mold. There are two ways, and we show both — we tried them side by side: With the brush (which we used for the Milk couverture): brush the couverture into the cavities. It's quick and easy to dose. With the Piping bag (which we used for the dark): fill the couverture into a Piping bag and pipe it into each cavity. This uses a bit more material, but hardly any air bubbles form — and air bubbles show up on the finished base as small craters.

Place the cooled Florentines onto the still-liquid couverture and press down lightly until they sit snugly. Not too firmly: the couverture should rise at the edges but not overflow.

Put the mold in a cool place until the couverture has fully set — when properly tempered it contracts, and the pieces almost fall out of the mold on their own. Then unmold and enjoy.