INTRODUCTION

I have not been sharing for such a long time as now I am doing some home baking for sales to my readers and friends. I wrapped dumpling twice a week and it took me 4 full days that drained all my energy . For the remaining three days, I have baked or prepared various type of cookies, festival food and etc.. If you are interested on things that I sold in Singapore, you can like this page : https://www.facebook.com/guaishushugoodies/. For example, I have sold Taiwanese Pineapple Cake before as in the picture below

I suddenly felt the urge to share this recipe as I am contemplating to sell this to my buyers that do not have an oven at home. For those who have an oven, I would advise you not to buy and do it at home as it is extremely simple, straightforward yet delicious.  Another reason of sharing this recipe is I am baking this recipe batch to give as gifts for Christmas to buyers who blessed me with Christmas goodies.

This is definitely not new nor trendy. It has been in Facebook for so many years already. Only last year, I have a chance of trying it in one of the home visit during Chinese New Year.

Unsure the origin of this well liked nuts brittle, apparently it is slightly different from Western florentine which is full of fruits or nuts. I did not blog in the previous years because the biennetta or florentine powder are expensive and always encountered shortages in the previous Chinese New Year. However, yesterday i was surprised the price is only S$8.50 for a pack of 500 grams..

I have two totally different recipes that yields almost similar products, one of them is : Nuts Crispy Brittle or Nuts Sweets (坚果脆片） and i used the Chinese approaches of preparing these brittles.

Another one recipe which is very common in Taiwan is the Almond crisp that uses egg white or whole eggs . It is delicious but as compared to this recipe, it is really very difficult if your oven have temperature unevenness. If you are interested, you can refer to this recipe: Almond Crisp (杏仁瓦片）

So this will be the third recipe which is the easiest among all. I do not know how healthy is this recipe as the ingredients have lots of “chemical” components as compared to the above two recipes. Well i presumed if you are only indulging it once in a year, it will not be that detrimental to your health. You will definitely need Florentine powder as follows :

An alternative to this powder is the Bienetta Powder. I am sorry I cannot find adequate background information for this powder as there are limited write up on this..

In the package there are instructions. You can follow the instructions as in package or follow this recipe. My recipe is more conservative and uses more nuts than as instructed.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 4-5 Standard Chinese New Year Bottles

• 500 grams of Florentine Powder
• 600 grams of nuts of choice ** (see note below)

*In this illustration, I have used 300 grams of sliced almond, 200 grams of pumpkin seeds, 100 grams of melon seeds and some sesame seeds

** Package instruction is using 500 grams of powder to 250 grams of nuts. Personally, i find that it will be too sweet plus lack of presentation, I have increased the nuts to more than double the stated quantities)

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Pre-heat the oven to 160 degree Celsius

• In a big mixing bowl, mixed the nuts with the florentine powder as even as possible. Note that your have the choice of nuts and there is no fixed and fast rules about the nuts selection. However, it is suggested that the nuts selected shall not be too thick (like almond or walnuts) and best can be eaten raw .

• Transfer some the mixture to baking trays lined with non stick baking paper, even out to about 3 mm thickness. In this illustration, i have baked 5 big trays (15”x18”) and in 3 separate sessions.

• Baked in the oven the pre-heated oven of 160 degree Celsius for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

• Once golden brown, transfer out and use a sharp knife to cut into your desired shape.

• Once cooled completely, it will harden and store in an air tight container immediately.

CONCLUSION

This is a straight forward recipe, fast and easy. The brittle is very addictive is you are a nut lover. If you have been buying this is the previous new years, why not try making yourself. For Florentine and Bienetta powder , you can get in bakery shops and if you are thinking of making a fortune this Chinese New Year, may be you should consider stocking up the powder as the prices will increase over the time and at time it is difficult even to snatch one package.

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