I know that I claim that a lot of these recipes are incredibly easy to make, but these Poor Man’s Florentines have to be near the top of the list of easy traybakes. It was quick to assemble and really only requires some chopping, butter melting, and biscuit crushing.

Now, this is my third attempt at making a florentine-style traybake. The two previous recipes hadn’t been very successful, so I was taking quite a gamble trying yet another florentine recipe. But this one worked.  And they are rather yummy.

(Florentine recipe #1 will possibly make an appearance sometime in the future, it just needs a few tweaks to get it right. Florentine recipe #2 was a disaster and even though it could probably be rescued with a few changes to the method and ingredients, I’m not sure it deserves a second attempt!)

Anyway, to get back to these florentines. For some reason they are called Poor Man’s Florentines. I have no idea why. I mean, if you can afford the ingredients for these, then I’m sure you could rustle up a batch of regular florentines just as easily. Maybe it’s the lack of chocolate that makes them more affordable? Who knows? And frankly, who cares, because they taste good no matter what you call them.

As with many of these super simple traybake recipes, these Poor Man’s Florentines don’t need much baking advice. Make sure to press the biscuit layer down firmly, to create a nice, stable base. And then pour the condensed milk evenly over the top of the nuts and cherries. The top will firm up as it bakes and turn golden. Just leave it to set and cool before you try to slice it into squares.

Poor Man’s Florentines

A simple traybake made with digestive biscuits, nuts, cherries and condensed milk.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine british, Irish

Servings 9 squares

Ingredients

  

• 8 oz or 225g crushed digestives/graham crackers
• 1 oz or 30g brown sugar
• 4 oz or 110g butter melted
• 4 oz or 110g glacé/candied cherries chopped
• 4 oz or 110g walnuts chopped
• 2 oz or 55g sliced almonds
• ½ tin of condensed milk approx. 7fl oz/200g

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 325F/160C (conventional oven). Line a 8in/20cm square tin with baking parchment.
• Crush the Digestive biscuits and mix with the sugar. Melt the butter and pour over the biscuits and sugar. Press firmly into a traybake tin.
• Spread the chopped nuts and cherries over the top of the biscuit base.
• Drizzle the condensed milk evenly over the nuts and cherries.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.
• Leave in the tin to cool before cutting into squares.

Video

Keyword almonds, cherries, condensed milk, traybake, walnuts