Mongongo Nut Florentines
Annabel Hughes Aston is an award-winning chef, organic gardener, forager and writer, who lives with her husband on a farm in the Zambezi Valley, upstream from Victoria Falls in Livingstone, Zambia.
- Servings Makes about 25 cookies (the number will depend on their size)
Ingredients
- Oil or nonstick spray, for greasing baking sheet
- 50 grams (½ cup) all-purpose flour
- 1.25 ml (¼ teaspoon) salt
- 150 grams (1 cup) raisins
- 200 grams (1½ cups) mongongo nuts (or flaked almonds or other nuts), roughly chopped
- 120 grams (4 ounces) butter
- 160 grams (¾ cup) caster (superfine) sugar
- 50 ml (¼ cup) cream
- 150 grams (5.3 ounces) dark chocolate
Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 180° C (350° F), and lightly grease a baking sheet or nonstick baking liner.
2. Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl, and then mix in the raisins and nuts.
3. Melt the butter and sugar in a heavy-based saucepan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved completely.
4. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream. Add to the flour mixture and combine well. (It will resemble a sticky dough.)
5. Scoop out the mixture, a teaspoon at a time, onto the baking sheet, pressing it down into an oval as flat as you can. Be sure to leave ample space between each one because the mixture spreads while cooking.
6. Bake in the middle of the preheated oven, about 12-15 minutes. (Keep a close eye on them; they burn easily.)
7. Remove and cool, quickly reshaping the cookies into circles if they have spread awkwardly. Transfer to a cooling rack, and repeat the process until you have used up all the mixture.
8. Melt the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, making sure it isn’t in any way submerged. Stir occasionally while it is melting. Remove from the heat after it has melted and cool until the chocolate has thickened a little. Very gently paint the bottom of the Florentine with the chocolate. Allow to cool and set. Store in an airtight container in a cool place.
Annabel Hughes Aston
Annabel Hughes Aston is an award-winning chef, organic gardener, forager and writer, who lives with her husband on a farm in the Zambezi Valley, upstream from Victoria Falls in Livingstone, Zambia. Annabel is an advocate for hyperlocal, plant-forward, sustainable dining. She has spent the past nine years, since moving to Livingstone, developing an organic garden and experimenting with, and fusing, wild and indigenous ingredients with the produce she grows. She uses locally-produced dairy, meat and fish, while the garden, the market, the village and the wilderness make up the mainstay of her pantry: fresh organic garden produce, indigenous heirloom grains and seeds, bush fruits, tree nuts, wild mushrooms, legumes, roots, leaves and more, which she crafts into an ever-changing menu according to the seasons.
Courtesy photo
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