Quince Paste

I had a productive little day on Easter Sunday, after acquiring a bag of gorgeous quinces...

The first batch were poached in sugar syrup, with a vanilla pod - in the oven at about 150 degrees celsius for about 6 hours. They are freaking delicious.

The rest of them became quince paste. I've never attempted this before, and am pretty pleased with the results.

About 1.3 kg of coarsely chopped (and peeled and cored) quince into heavy saucepan, with about half a cup of water. Cooked until soft (around 30-40 mins). I added a bit of water during the cooking time as the pot dried out and the fruit started sticking. Once the quince was soft, it went into the food processor and got whizzed. Back into a clean pan, with 700g white sugar (next time i'll use raw sugar, because I think it tastes better, will give a better colour... and I think raw sugar is slightly less evil than white sugar).

Raw quince

 

 

1.281kg of raw quince to be exact!

 

 

Softened

Whizzed

Mixed with 700g white sugar

 

 

Then cooked the guts out of it for about 4 hours, until the mixture was thick, and I thought cooking it any further would lead to burning!


It took about 4 hours to go from this...

 

 

 

To this:

I put double-layered gladwrap into muffin tins, found some small plastic containers in my tupper-cupboard, and pushed the quince paste into the shapes. Sealed the gladwrap around the paste, and stuck in the fridge to set (about an hour)

 



 Nana Alice's muffin tin getting a workout!

 

The finished product

 

Taste tested tonight with wine, cheese and crackers. Winning combo.

It was a lot of work, and I may not do this again (have a new appreciation for the availability of quince paste in the local produce stores!), but am glad I gave it a shot. A few little treats for some special people in my life!