Feeling nutty

I recently started making my own granola as an accompaniment to my daily breakfast helping of yogurt. As a result, having extra flaked almonds and dried berries in the pantry led me to crave florentines, those nutty crispy cookies that I must admit, were unknown to me until my foray into pastry. Traditionally, florentines are thin and lacy caramelized discs, with one side combed in chocolate, served at Christmas. I figure May is close enough and in Paris, I did buy a Flexipan half-sheet for florentines that was begging to be used.


Two deviations from the classic florentine were made. First, the florentine mix was baked onto discs of pâte sucrée and second, a texture sheet was used to pattern the dark chocolate rather than a comb. Many recipes I found use candied citrus peel or candied fruit but since I had a leftover bag of mixed dried cherries, strawberries, cranberries and cape gooseberries from Famous Foods , they went into my florentines.


Of course, Eric and I could not possibly (or rather, should not definitely) eat all two dozen florentines that came from the oven. Unless my product yield is purposely small, most pastry items produced in my kitchen end up being distributed to friends and family and are strategically chosen to use up leftover mise en place. I am blessed to have the time and resources to bake and create at home, a weekly activity that brings me great joy and fulfillment. Photographing and writing about it on this little blog is an extension of the creative process that ultimately benefits me and my need for a creative outlet, regardless of whether anyone actually reads my blog! But to those who do visit my blog regularly even though it is not a traditional food blog and sometimes resembles more of a online career counselling diary, thank you for sharing this journey with me.