Wheat Free Elevenses - Chocolate dipped florentines, coconut & lime macaroons
Wheat messes with a lot of people these days, but that shouldn’t mean you have to go without your biscuity/ cakey elevenses, or that you have to settle for a packet of dusty gluten-free digestives.
These two recipes can be whipped up in no time and last for several days (if you don’t scoff them all before they’ve cooled). They don’t even have to be shared with your pals under the premise of being wheat-free - just make them, eat them and feel smug about your happier tummy.
Chocolate-dipped Florentines
This recipe is adapted from a David Lebovitz adaptation of an Ottolenghi recipe.
Ingredients
1 large egg white
40g icing sugar
One hearty glug maple syrup
130g of a mixture of mainly sliced almonds, pistachios and hazelnuts (or any other oily nuts)
30g cranberries or sour cherries (optional)
Pinch of sea salt
50g chocolate (it’s up to you whether you prefer dark or milk)
Recipe
Preheat your oven to 150°C and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Pour a little vegetable oil onto the parchment and spread it around.
In a glass or metal bowl mix together all of your ingredients except for the chocolate. If the mixture is a bit runny, add more nuts else you’ll get a weird meringue like situation in the oven.
Using wet hands place the mixture into blobs on your baking tray. Push the blobs into flatter shapes using a wet fork. Try to make sure there are no holes in your flattened blobs.
Pop the florentines into the oven for 15-20mins under they’re golden all over and all of the nuts seem to be fixed to each other.
Leave until cool then remove from the tray.
Now you can melt your chocolate. I like to use dark chocolate if the florentines are sweet and have berries in, and milk chocolate if they’re salty and nutty. If you don’t want your chocolate to ‘bloom’ then David Lebovitz suggests tempering the chocolate, but to be honest they’ll probably get eaten before that happens so it’s not a necessity.
Once the chocolate has melted, spread some on the base of the florentines using a spatula, then pop them in the fridge to set. Gobble with a big mug of tea.
Coconut and lime macaroons (pictured at the top of the page)
This recipe is adapted slightly from a BBC recipe by Jill Dupliex
Ingredients
2 egg whites
100g caster sugar
140g desiccated coconut
Zest of 2 limes
Juice of 1 lime
Recipe
As with the florentines, preheat your oven to 150°C and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Pour a little vegetable oil onto the parchment and spread it around.
Mix all of your ingredients together in a glass or metal bowl then shape into evenly sized piles on your baking tray. Try to keep their shape fairly rough so you get nice caramelised edges.
Bake until they are golden all over (20-25mins). If they feel wobbly or that they’re not properly stuck together then turn the heat down a smidge and give them a bit longer.
Leave them to cool, then remove from the tray (they feel a bit firmer after they’ve cooled). Again, gobble with a big mug of tea. Tea goes with everything.
