Recipe: Quince Paste

1- Wash the quinces in fresh water, then peel them and cut them into quarters. Remove the seeds, keeping them in a small piece of gauze.

2- Cook them very gently in a thick-bottomed saucepan with very little water (15cl) and the small bundle of seeds.

3- When your quarters can be easily crushed (with a fork), remove the seed bundle and press it firmly above the saucepan to extract the pectin it contains, then pass your pulp with its juice through a vegetable mill with a fine screen.

4- Weigh your pulp and add 40% of its weight in caster sugar (for example for 500g of pulp this corresponds to 200g of sugar), reheat everything while stirring constantly. When drops of this mixture set like gelatin on a cold plate, stop the cooking.

5- Pour onto a plate of appropriate size with small edges of 2 or 3cm (teflon) or lined with a sheet of lightly oiled parchment paper and spread your mixture with a spatula.

6- Let dry at room temperature. Some pass this preparation in a gentle oven but don't worry, as this mixture cools it will turn into paste.

7- When it is set and cold, cut small cubes and roll them in crystallized sugar or place crushed almonds on top, then store them by separating the layers with a small sheet of parchment paper.