Emma Deans quince paste Photo: Supplied
One of my favourite activities is to make up a big batch of quince paste to get meand my friends through the year.
The smell of baking quinces makes my home smell so wonderful – there is nothing quite like it!
Ingredients:
- 1kg quinces – washed and skin left on
- 1kg white sugar
- 1 lemon, juiced (you may need 2)
- 150ml water (you may need more)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius.
Bake the quinces whole, on a baking tray, for about 2 hours, or until soft when pierced with a skewer.
Remove from oven and cool. (whole baked quinces are also delicious as a healthy dessert served with yoghurt!)
When cool, peel the quinces, and cut into quarters, removing the core and seeds.
Weigh out the quince flesh and weigh out equal amount of sugar.
Puree the flesh in a food processor (or mash as fine as you can get).
Put the weighed out sugar, the quince puree, the juice of the lemon and the water into a heavy based saucepan.
Bring to the boil, and then turn down to a very low heat and let cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
Once the consistency of a very think jam, spoon into sterilised jars, put on lid and set aside to cool.
Keep in the pantry, but once opened this needs to go into the fridge.
This will keep for years and is just so so so much better than the bought stuff!
Trust me! It goes with all kinds of cheese, from cheddar to brie to a punchy blue!
It also make a nice glaze for baked ham and a sauce for roast lamb!
Quinces – get onto them!
