Monday, April 15, 2013

Quince


With each season comes specific tastes.  For me, one of the defining tastes of autumn is quince.  That amazing fruit that with many, many hours of cooking transforms from a hard, bitter white inedible fruit, to a ruby red, soft, fragrant treat.  The best way to cook it that I've found comes from the lovely Heidi over at Apples Under My Bed.  I don't always have enough time to cook it for the required time so one trick I've found is that if I put it on about at about 6pm then turn the oven off when I go to bed (10ish) leaving the pot in the closed oven, the quince is perfect come morning.


The next question is what to do with my bounty.  Mostly I eat it as a treat on top of my morning porridge which takes over from muesli as the weather cools.  But quince is available for such a limited time it seems only appropriate that it should be used for a few extra treats like this upside down cake.  I made it using poached quince instead of pears in this recipe and it proved to be a winning combination.  The spice and the quince work together beautifully, making for what must be the ultimate autumn dessert.

Do you like quince and do you have any other suggestions of how I should be enjoying it this year?

1 comment:

  1. I love your autumn quince posts :) Although (so embarrassing) I still haven't tried it. It actually isn't that common over here - perhaps because our weather isn't as cool? - but I could get hold of some if I tried. Alas, I seem to just like admiring yours.

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