Florentines

The first time I ever heard of Florentines was when I was watching the Great British Bake Off.  I thought way back to the time I tried to make something that was similar.  Back in 2009 I tried to make some sugar snaps basket(or brandy snaps) for my aunt's birthday party.  I never made it again, I thought they were too 'weird', too sweet, too oily (thinking back, I might have under baked them).  

I've also compared the recipe for brandy snaps and florentines just to see what made them different.  From what I've read, it seems like florentines are usually mixed with nuts and dried fruits, while brandy snaps doesn't, and have additional flavors such as (duh)brandy and warming spices.  Although both of them tends to be finished off with chocolate.  I guess caramel and chocolate are just the perfect pair huh.

So here I am, trying to attempt this whole lace-ey sugar-ey thing once more.  

I decided to go with Banana this time, because I didn't have any dried fruits at home.  My brother likes banana.  Banana goes well with chocolate.  Everybody wins. 

Now I know this isn't the traditional way to make florentines, but I don't have molasses so I resulted to using Carnation's florentines instead.

• 25g butter
• 25g light brown soft sugar
• 100g Carnation Condensed Milk
• 2tsp plain flour
• 150g mixed dried fruit and nuts such as apricots, cranberries, toasted flaked almonds, desiccated coconut etc. -- in this recipe I used a mixture between sun-dried bananas, walnuts, almonds, and pecans.
• 85g dark chocolate

I grabbed some nuts I have in the freezer and threw them in too :) 

Alright here we have the butter and the sugar.  I weighted them wit the scale.  And then I attempted to microwave it.

 

 

Which was a pretty stupid attempt considering how the sugar just melt and clump together into a horrible mess.  So I decided to switch to the classic stove top.  Medium heat please.

 

Condensed milk timeee

 Aw yis.

Yassss

O
M
G

Look at that butt-er
^ayyy

 Now lets make this a dough.

 Dump and keep stirring until you get this.  Cook the flour.  Turn off the heat.

Time for the mixed ins!  

Divide them evenly and roll into balls.  I shaped them while they were pretty hot and burned myself. Don't be stupid like me.  I found it helpful to oil your hands before handling them, its not such a sticky batter, but it just makes life a lot easier. Then bake them at 180°C for 13 minutes or until it stops bubbling.  

 

 Melt some chocolate.
My tempering skills are not so great so they came out a little matte :( well, next time I guess.

I can see holes in them! <3

I tried to microwave this too.  Don't. 

Coffee French Buttercream and Coffee Syrup [opera cake]

We'll use the same coffee 'shots' to flavor the buttercream and the soaking syrup for the sponge.
You'll need:

4 tsp instant coffee
2 tbsp hot water

Mix them together and set aside.  

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This is probably one of the richest buttercream.  like ever.  okay lets get started.

French Buttercream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup +2tbsp water
2 egg yolks (be sure to use organic eggs)
1/2 cup of butter

Start by measuring out 1/2 cup of butter.  A cup is approximately 230 grams, so 1/2 cup is 115 grams– which I divided it into perfectly.  perfectly.  oh the beauty.   Keep the other half of butter on the counter, we'll use it to make the ganache and the chocolate base later on.

On medium-high heat, combine water and sugar.  Here I'm using caramel sugar to give it a better taste, but you could use caster sugar just fine.  We're going to bring this up to soft ball stage or 238˚F, so be sure to use your thermometer for this. If not, just keep testing by dropping the syrup in ice cold water.  If the syrup is firm and soft - hence soft ball stage, it is ready.

Meanwhile, start whisking the egg yolks.

 Don't worry its not burned.  Its just the color of my sugar.  Once it reaches 238˚F, remove from heat and, with mixer on low, pour the hot syrup in a thin stream.  Not while the mixture is on high.  never when its on high, cause the whisk is gna splatter the sugar and its going to be all over the side of the bowl too.  You don't want web-by sugar strands all over your hair.  Trust me.

 Sugar on the side of the bowl is most annoying.  Anyway whisk until the yolks are pale and thick.  Ribbon stage is ideal.  While you're waiting, you should probably make the coffee syrup(bottom of the post).

 Add half of your coffee syrup, scrape the side of the bowl, whisk a little more, and you're done.  Chill in the fridge.  

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Coffee Syrup

Other half of the coffee

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

Combine the water and sugar in a glass.  Microwave until all sugar is dissolved.  Add in the coffee after.  DON'T do this.  please.  

 all was good here.

 Don't do it like me and use coffee flakes.  Takes forever to come together.  seriously.  The syrup is thick.  its not watery.  The flakes don't melt.  It clumps.  nightmare.

 

Painting on Fondant

Fondants are great, fondants are fun.  

Fondants are useful too.

And sometime you do want to make fun cake toppers.  

I don't know, maybe you feel like painting too.

So why not combine? 

The key things you will need:

–Colorless alcohol such as Gin, Vodka, Tequila, sakes

–Gel food coloring

–Fondant

–Paint brush

Okay lets start! 

Dust your work surface with a mixture of corn starch and icing and roll out your fondant to your desired thickness.  Make sure you don't make it too thin, or else it'll be very easily broken. ⇓⇓⇓

⇐ I tried to be cool with my gloves.

Brush off any excess corn starch/icing, makes life easier :) 

You can trim the fondant to the size you need and leave it out in a counter to dry, but if you're in a hurry, or just lazy like me, just keep going.

Onward! 

Take a shot of alcohol and prepare to have some fun (kidding).  You'll need some sort of painting palette, but I don't have one.  So I used the chocolate silicon mode.  Same thing.  Don't follow me.

You need alcohol because it evaporates quicker, dries faster, and the fondant won't melt.  Also the fumes makes you high.

Treat it like water color, mix color gel with drops of alcohol until you get the color you want.  Start by boxing in the shape of what you're going to paint, same as what you learned in art class of course.  I like to slowly layer, but its up to you.  

Once you got the outline done, trim the fondant.  Use the trimming as a scratch pad :) All is cool.  All is well. 

I felt like an art kid. I really should be taking IB art.  

Im great.  

Once you're done,  leave it out to dry.  Mine took days, cause its hot-humid Thailand.  

If you're planning to put this on a buttercream/mouse cake, or anything moist, please coat the bottom of the fondant with white or dark chocolate.  It blocks out the moisture, preventing the water soluble fondant to melt. 

I gave this another go.  I think I have improved, eh?

Getting used to the new medium. ⇓⇓⇓

Thank you for reading!