I based this nuts and oat florentine on oats and on a variety of nuts. There is lots of space for accommodation around your taste.
Those tips were posted in a post I placed on this blog and you may not have seen them. Consider them, they are convenient. Now feel free to add other ingredients than oats to your base, for example you can add silvered almonds or corn flakes.
Tip 1 – the “glue” of your oat florentine
In the end, I realised it doesn’t matter too much what you want in it, it is important to make sure you have a good “glue”. I looked at a number of recipes for that binding mix and opted for my own made with simple ingredients (butter, honey and brown sugar), so no glucose syrup or other fancy items.
Tip 2 – you need salt in your florentine
One thing I did wrong was having a little too much salt. So put salt but go slowly, once added you can’t remove it
Tip 3 – solid ingredients: let yourself go! There are no limitations there. You need to think of the flavours you are combining together, this is crucial but not too hard. if not sure, stick to a few nuts, seeds or dry fruits in addition to the oats.
Mine was a little extravagant as I went through the pantry nuts jars: brazil nuts (cut), shredded coconut, pepitas, walnuts, roasted hazelnuts, macadamia pieces. And some dry cranberries.
Now for he new tips:
Tip 4 – bake your florentine until nice and brown, do not hesitate to go to a nice coloured brown as it means the florentine will be more solid. The caramel is what binds the ingredients together. If it is too light, it will not hold.
Tip 5 – the slice shape is so much easier to handle, but the florentine round shape is pretty. My round shapes are enormous, too big really but fun!
Ingredients:
- 250 g of rolled oats
- 175 g of brazil nuts, cut in pieces
- 50 g of shredded coconut
- 100 g of pepitas
- 100 g of walnuts broken
- 150 g of roasted hazelnuts, cut in pieces (quarter size roughly)
- 100 g of macadamia, also cut in pieces
- 1 tsp of salt
- Wet mix:
- 100 g of melted butter
- 120 g of honey (you may need to heat up the honey if it is solidified)
- 150 g of brown sugar (or up to 200g if you like them quite sweet)
- 180 g of dark cooking chocolate gently melted for the top
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line a baking tray or slice tray with baking paper.
- Prepare the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them. Prepare the wet ingredients in another bowl.
- Mix dry and wet ingredients.
- if using a slice tin, press the mix to a thickness of 1.5 cm to 2 cm. If doing florentines, use a tablespoon of mix minimum and press down to a 1.5cm thick disc. The width will depend on the amount of mix.
- Bake in the middle of your oven for 1/2h to 40 minutes until nicely brown (the time will depend on your oven)
- Cool down before covering with melted chocolate. If doing a slice, cut when the chocolate has almost hardened.
