Festival of the Quince

I really love quinces. They undergo an incredible transformation over the process of about 8 hours. Although they have a delicious fragrance, they also have a strange furry coating, and after being cut open they oxidize immediately. Baking them is the easiest treatment, and you need not worry about oxidization. I washed the quinces, peeled the skin, cut the cores out of the slices and placed them in a cast-iron pot, with a heavy sugar syrup (flavoured with vanilla pod and the juice of a lemon). The cores also went into the pot, in a muslin bag. Then they were baked slowly for 8 hours in a low oven (about 150º C).  Then they were ready to use.

But I’m all about utilising ingredients to the fullest extent. So I made part of the cooking syrup into a beautiful pink custard, with the addition of egg yolks and cream.

I boiled the rest down into a thick, incredibly rich glaze, and used spoonfuls of that on top of the dessert.

Here it is in its final iteration, assembled in some brandy snap baskets, and later on with a scoop of ice-cream on top.  I must say that it was VERY sweet – next time I would use a pastry shell, or even just have the quinces with the custard and ice-cream, and leave the brandy snap out of the equation.  But it was still very delicious!

Huge credits to the one and only Stephanie Alexander for her quince recipes.