Serves: n/a
Approx cost: n/a
Approx calories (per serving): n/a
Approx preparation time: 5 hours
[dropcap style=”font-size: 60px; color: #0B0B61;”]This was one of those recipes that I thought would never work out. I made it last week – My head was stuffy, my nose running, my throat sore, and it just would not comply. Then of course there was the conundrum of what I should call this stuff. It’s not a paste, and I’ve already made a “jelly” in my previous post. This is like a quince candy, a “quince fruit leather”, if you will – only a fair bit thicker. You could of course easily adapt the recipe and make it thinner, and then make a real fruit leather… up to you! I don’t know about you but I’m just about all quinced out for now, so this will be the last quince post – at least until next season!
I also wanted to thank Autumn Dawn from Taking Your Stand for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. I’d actually just been nominated a few days ago already, although the award is no less appreciated – Thank you Autumn, and I hope you enjoy reading my blog. If you wanted to see my other post where I mentioned the “unknown things” about me, you can see it here.
Have a nice Wednesday everyone, and enjoy the Quincey goodness! The recipe is actually in two parts below – you can actually stop after the first part and keep the purée to use for other things – toppings for ice-creams, usage in cake and so forth.
[learn_more caption=”Part 1 – Quince Purée”]
Quince Purée Ingredients
- 1 kilo of Quinces, cored, peeled and chopped
- 50g Sugar
- 1 litre Water
Quince Purée Instructions
- Add the quinces, water and sugar together in a large pan. Bring to the boil, then cover, reduce the heat and simmer for about 2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes or so ensure the mixture doesn’t burn
- Remove the lid and stir well. Using a hand-blender, mix the fruit to a smooth purée. Continue to simmer the mixture until it has a decent consistency. While you are doing this, wash a number of canning jars thoroughly. Preheat the oven to about 130 degrees Celsius and place the jars inside for about 10-15 minutes to sterilise them. Transfer the hot purée straight into the hot jars and seal immediately. At this point, you can stop and have a nice batch of purée to add to your yoghurts, cakes, oatmeal etc, but if you want to make the full dish, read on!
[learn_more caption=”Part 2 – Quince Jellies”]
Quince Jellies Ingredients
- All the previously made Quince Purée (~1 kilo)
- Juice from 1 Lemon
- 200g Sugar
Quince Jellies Instructions
- Dump all the Purée, the sugar and the lemon juice into a pan and place on a medium heat, uncovered. Simmer the mixture, stirring every 10 minutes or so until the mixture has reduced down a lot. The colour will start to turn darker as the sugars caramelise. The good thing is, even if you haven’t boiled it down enough you can still salvage the recipe, so better to err on the side of caution then burn everything to a crisp! Line a flat dish with baking paper and transfer in the mixture. Smooth out to an even thickness and allow to cool.
- If you have been successful in your boiling then the mixture should have cooled to a solid jelly-like consistency. If not then what I did was bake the mix in the oven, around 110 degrees, for about 1.5 hours. I did this twice to get the desired colour/consistency, so repeat as needed. Allow to cool between each cooking and test. When you finally have the gummy texture turn the jelly out onto a board. Using a knife or pretty cookie cutter, cut out shapes from the jelly. Roll the shapes in sugar and serve as a wonderful, fruity confection!
Ruth says
These look lovely – I’ve never cooked with quinces but this makes me want to get hold of some!
Charles says
Thanks Ruth – you should definitely try. They're fun to mess about with 🙂
Marianna says
I wonder if you can make caramels like that? I could try, cause jellies look too complicated for me, I would definitely screw smth up))
Charles says
Caramels are more difficult in my experience. Too much which can go wrong. You burn the sugar so easily, and you can easily turn caramel to fudge, or toffee, or rock, really quickly.
Marianna says
All sounds very tasty, whats the problem then? ))
Charles says
lol – well, mainly the problem is burning stuff. Sugar burns mega fast and once it's burnt it's pretty much ruined!
Kelly says
Awesome Charles! And what a success – they look great. My boys love natural fruit leather – these would be a huge hit!! (now to find quince…) 🙂 France continues to be in our sights for the Spring though no formal plans have been made. Cheers, k.
Charles says
Thanks Kelly. It was a fun experience making the leather-type-stuff. Definitely something I'm going to try and repeat with different fruits next time 🙂
Sissi says
Your pâte de coing looks fabulous! My husband loves it, and I made tons of it last year. This year I still haven't found cheap quince, but am patiently waiting for my usual market stall to sell it.
I have also an idea of how to use the quince purée: you sweeten it and preserve in jars like jams (I do this, there is even a post like this on my blog les year). I use it then in pies, cakes etc..
I hope you feel better!
Charles says
Hi Sissi – in fact yeah, we tried to make a jam type thing, but it ended up being more of a puree/compote, so we added some spices, canned it and use it whenever now. I think I will try to make a cake similar to the one you made with apple not long ago!
Eva@ kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com says
Hi Charles, this looks really tasty. I wonder what makes it jelly? Does the quince have enough natural pectin to harden it up, or is it the sugar?
Charles says
Hi Eva – I think it's actually a combination of a lot of things. I read that Quince can be quite rich in pectin, as long as you use it at the right time. Adding into that sugar, and the fact that you're cooking away a *lot* of any remaining liquid, and you have a sure recipe for some gum-type stuff 😀
Greg says
It looks tasty, no matter what you call it. Congrats on the award, well-deserved.
Charles says
Thanks Greg 🙂 Hope you're having a good weekend!
Kristy says
These look so cute! What a fun fall treat to have setting out in the house. I doubt they would last long around here though. Congrats on another award and I hope you're feeling better. I'm not looking forward to the first fall cold/virus. I know it's bound to happen sooner or later. They are never any fun. I'm just impressed you're still cooking up all of this goodness. I'm such a baby when I'm sick – all I want to do is lay in bed and hide. 😉
Charles says
Cheers Kristy – they're rather good just to have as a natural treat every now and again. All natural flavouring for the win!
Joanna Swan says
Absolutely what I had in mind when I mentioned the fudge-like deliciousness my aunt concocted with quince. This looks divine. Thought about adding walnuts to the mix?
Charles says
Mmm, walnuts! I didn't think about that before … I bet it would be delicious. I bit like a fruity version of this peanut/seasame gum stuff they sell at Chinese restaurants. Thanks for the idea!
Pure Complex says
I love it when a dish works out..then there isn't any wasted ingredients. And I must say, for seeing these for the first time, these quince jellies look really good.
Charles says
Thanks Kay! I gave some to my neighbour too who loved them! Hope you're having a good weekend 🙂
A_Boleyn says
Hey Charles, I took another look at the quince jellies you made after having finished baking/poaching my 2 quinces. For some reason when I thought of jelly, I was picturing the look of a mint jelly rather than the more robust puree you got from the quinces. I strained the syrup I got and poured it over the remaining 1 1/2 quince wedges cause I'm curious if it will 'gel' overnight in the fridge. Or do I need the "decoction" from the cores, peels and seeds to get enough pecting?
Anyway, here's the recipe I used.
My Baked/Poached Quinces (serves 2 or 3)
2 quinces
1 cup water
1/2-3/4 cup sugar
8 cloves
2" cinnamon stick
1 tsp vanilla infused sugar
1/2 lemon, juice and husk
Preheat oven to 350-375 deg F.
In a small saucepan, combine water, sugar, cloves, cinnamon stick, vanilla sugar and juice of half a lemon reserving the lemon husk to rub on cut surfaces of quinces. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar is melted. Remove from heat.
Cut quinces in half and then 3rds or halves again depending on size of quince. Peel and core, rubbing all cut surfaces with lemon and fit snugly into a small baking dish. Pour syrup over quinces making sure the liquid just covers the fruit.
Cover dish with a circle of parchment paper cut to size and then the lid and bake 2-3 hours or until the flesh is tender enough that a knife pierces the flesh easily. (Trial 1 at 375 deg F took 1 1/2 hrs).
Serve hot or cold and with ice cream.
NOTE: I used 1/2 cup of sugar in the syrup when I started baking the quinces and tasted the syrup after about 40 min. The syrup seemed a bit tangy/lemony so I added an additional 1/4 cup of sugar to the pan. After sampling the finished quinces with syrup, I think the original 1/2 cup of sugar would have been sufficient especially when served hot with French vanilla ice cream. After my first taste, I think that quinces reminded me of pears but without their granular texture.
Charles says
I think the syrup you have might not "gel up" – it either needs the additional pectin from the peel/cores, or a fair amount of sugar added. In any case, the recipe sounds wonderful – thanks for posting it! I wonder now as well if you could poach these in something like red wine… I bet that would be pretty tasty!
They are quite a special taste, aren't they? It's like an apple/pear hybrid with a touch of something else.
A_Boleyn says
I checked the container in the fridge and you are correct… no gelling. I have yet to do any canning but I definitely think that quince jelly is in my future. 🙂
I agree that the quinces could also be poached in something like red wine with whatever spices you prefer. The downstairs had the most wonderful aroma from the baked quinces for much of the evening, which along with the wonderful taste, makes the whole experiment worth while. Thank you again for exposing me to the wonderful world of quinces.
Chami says
YoU made it! I should forward the link to someone who knows very well about those "Coing"
Charles says
Yeah!! Our neighbour loved them too… we gave her a load in a bowl and she was so happy! Of all the things I've given her before – bread, cakes, cookies… I've never seen her so happy as when she was eating these jellies! 😀
Melissa says
Is this similar to quince paste? We enjoyed some on a fruit/cheese/tapas plate recently and I'd love to be able to recreate the appetizer plate at home.
~Melissa Placzek
http://www.ChinDeep.com
A_Boleyn says
I was grocery shopping on Saturday at my local chain grocery store. They were selling quinces at 3 for $5 CDN. I though of you and laughed remembering the first purchase I ever made of quinces and your comment to my grand announcement that I had bought 3. I can't honestly say I even remembered what they cost. I just handed the woman some money and took whatever change she gave me.