Quince season is around February in Europe. You find them every where in abundance when in season. You can prepare a variety of dishes with quince, ranging from main dishes to side dishes, to desserts and jams. My favorite is to eat it like an apple. This post is how to prepare a Quince Dessert.
Fruit desserts are the most antique desserts. Most common fruit desserts are made with apples and pears. My guess is that the quince dessert was invented by some clever women who ended up with stiff quince which was very difficult to swallow as a fruit so she used them to make a dessert.
It is quite easy. In this recipe you will find several tips; such as adding a spice bag in to the pot. Adding quince seeds will help to protect color, adding cinnamon will provide flavor, adding pomegranate seeds will add color.
You can fill the seed beds with an additional quince or apple grate.
Adding a scoop of kaymak/Turkish clotted cream will make it even more delicious. Definitely skip this if you are vegan.
I hope you will have a change to enjoy this light dessert with cup of strong Turkish coffee.
A lovely winter sunshine will be a plus if you are lucky.
If you like this recipe you might also like the Apple Dessert, which is also a vegan fruit dessert.
Quince Dessert
Ingredients
- 3 Quince medium and similar sized
- 1 Quince or Apple extra, for filling
- 100 grams sugar
- 4 cloves
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds
- 125 milliliter water
Instructions
- Wash and peel 3 quinces. Cut them into half and remove the seeds and the seed beds.
- Do not discard the seeds.
- Cut a thin slice at the bottom of each quince to make them become flat so they stand still in the pot.
- If you think it will take more than 10 minutes to peel, clean the core and cut the quince put the ready pieces of quince in a pot of water with lemon juice so that they do not get dark.
- Put the cloves, quince seeds into a spice pack or wrap them in a cheese cloth. This pack will help the quince to get additional flavor and o pinkish color. You may also add a cinnamon stick or 2 tablespoons of pomegranate seeds.
- Place the quinces with seed holes facing down into a shallow, wide pot large enough that they are not on top of one another. Place the seed pack in the middle. Pour the water on top.
- Bring to boil, with lid closed until the quinces begin to get soft, for about 15 minutes.
- Then flip over the quince halves so that the holes are now facing up. Add about a talespoon of sugar in each quince hole.
- Reduce the heat to minimum and cook with lid open until the syrup evaporates, for about 10 more minutes.
- Check with a toothpick to understand if the quince is cooked enough. Take out the quince and place in a serving dish with the holes facing upwards.
- Peel the fourth fruit either an additional quince or an apple and grate it into the remaining syrup. Boil. Once the grated fruit soaks up the syrup put some into the quince holes.
- Cool and serve. You may garnish with cream, ice cream or grounded nuts.
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