Not very conventional but so easy and sooo tasty!
Germans know how to make bread. And here in the south of Germany it can be totaly ingenious. So ingenious that I am starting to worry about my waistline...
Today at Brotmanufaktur in Konstanz, Kanzleistrasse 10. Latte macchiato with freshly made Mokka brezel cookies warms up the soul! The recipe for the cookies comes from the Christmas Pastry book but honestly, who said that chocolate & coffee are reserved for Christmas? Certainly not me!
It was rainy today, perfect weather to curl up and cook something tasty. And there were the last quinces that fell down from the tree tonight. Quite a good coincidence! Or shall I say quincidence? Quince is a pretty new discovery for me as it is nothing that you get in a supermarket and to my shame I used to ignore this fruit on the farmers' market. Here in the Bodensee region you see a quince tree here and there, so I got excited and started to experiment with them. The first thing I did was a quince pie which turned out to be all right, but since I just cut quinces into slices, it was full of little grains. Not really my thing... Quince Jelly on the contrary is so smooth and so tasty, that we are opening one jar after another, a reason enough to fill up the stock. So here is the recipe. There is a basic one and a Christmassy variation I did today. I have to admit, it is time-consuming but it totally pays off! It tastes great on the toast, fresh bread or with a cheese cake and is just the right thing on a delightful cheese plate. This is how it goes: Basic recipe: 6-7 quinces, 2L cold water, 2 lemons (juice and peel), sugar with pectin. I prefer the 3:1 sugar (1 part sugar - 3 parts fruit) but it is up to you how sweet you like it. Variation: for the Christmassy taste I replaced the lemons with two oranges and added 3-4 pieces of cardamom, 3-4 cloves and one star of anise. 1. Remove the external fur from the quinces with a towel or a brush, wash them and cut them into slices. 2. Put the lemon juice & peel (optionally - orange juice & peel plus the spices) into the pen with cold water. The peel should be thin and with no white on it. Add the quinces and bring to the boil. 3. Turn the heat down and cook until the quinces are really soft. It can take up to 1,5 hours. 4. Take another pan, put a clean kitchen towel into a strainer and place it onto the pan. Put the cooked fruit into it. You can leave it there for 24 hours allowing the juice to drip trough the towel if you want your jelly to be transparent. If you don't mind it to be cloudy and want to fill the jars as soon as possible you can put the fruit into the towel portion by portion and squeeze it. 5. You are almost there! Measure the juice you got, add sugar and boil it. As I use the 3:1 sugar with pectin I only take 500g sugar for 1,5L juice and let it boil for 3-4 minutes or as long as I am sure that the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove any foam from the top, it will be a nice addition to the tomorrow's breakfast and your jelly will keep longer without it. Actually you can store it for up to 2 years! 6. Pour the jelly into the hot sterilised jars, close the lids and put the jars upside-down for 5 minutes. Allow the jars to cool down and press with your finger in the middle of every lid to make sure that there is a vacuum effect. If no, you will have to repeat the procedure once again with a new lid or just put the jar into the fridge and eat it promptly. 7. Enjoy it! |
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