Florentine Torte

I was thinking how good Florentines are, a flat tuille type biscuits, studded with dried fruit, candied peel and nuts and once baked and cooled, lavishly dragged over melted chocolate. It occurred to me that I could come up with a torte that would similarly deliver all of the flavours. This is the result. For me the addition of candied peel (do please use whole peel which you chop yourself rather than the pre-chopped stuff you can buy) makes for an altogether more sophisticated flavour combination. I used candied pomelo peel which I make using my candied peel recipe click here for the recipe . Make this torte once, following the recipe and it could start you on a journey of invention, simply replace some or all of the dried fruit and nut ingredients with your own choice, apricots, white chocolate, pecan, glace ginger, are just a few ideas that would work.

For this recipe you will need;
250g of sweet pastry click here for my recipe
120g of caster sugar
120g of soft, unsalted butter
2 eggs
100g of Self Raising flour
70g of ground amonds

140g of chopped Medjool dates
70g of dried sour cherries
70g of candied peel
120g of dark chocolate, chopped
75g of roasted hazelnuts, chopped
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Begin by lining a 24cm flan tin with the pastry, prick the bottom several times with a fork and chill for 20 minutes in the fridge before baking in a hot oven, 200C for 12 to 15 minutes.

Prepare the filling by chopping up the dates, chocolate, hazelnuts and candied peel.

In a food processor, cream together the butter and the sugar, add the eggs and salt and process for a further minute. Add the flour and ground almonds and mix together on a pulse setting for 10 seconds or so. Finally add the remaining ingredients and pulse together just until all are combined.
Take the precooked pastry case out of the oven, leaving it in the tin, pile in and smooth out the filling, turn down the heat to 180C and bake for 40 minutes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the tin and cooling on a wire rack.

Notes:
Serve this torte warm if you like the chocolate to be molten,