It’s winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and in Sydney we’re experiencing a really crisp winter, which I love, as I’m a fan of the cold weather.
Quinces are in season and I make a few quince recipes at this time of year. One of my favourites is baked quince with crumble, slices of slowly baked quince with a crumble topping and thick cream.
Quinces go well with pastry, so I recently made a rustic quince tart, a simple sweet short crust pastry base, baked free-form, topped with cookedquince.
The pastry recipe is from a recipe for Red Apple Rustic Tart, and the baked quince is adapted from a recipe for Quince Shortcake.
Ingredients
For the quinces:
2 quinces
100g caster sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
For the pastry:
1 3/4 cups plain flour
170 grams butter
1 tablespoon sugar plus extra for sprinkling
A good pinch of salt
2 tablespoons ice cold water
Method
Baked quinces:
Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. Peel the quinces, halve lengthways and remove cores. Cut in slices and put the slices in a small baking dish. Scatter over sugar and squeeze over the lemon juice.
Cover tightly with a doubled sheet of foil. Bake the quinces for 2-3 hours, basting a few times through the process, until the quinces are soft and a ruby red colour. Remove from the dish to cool.
Pastry:
Pulse flour, butter, sugar and salt in food processor, until the consistency of coarse breadcrumbs. Add enough iced water to bring the pastry together – be careful not to over mix.
Wrap the pastry in cling film and refrigerate for 20 -30 minutes.
To make the tart:
Turn the oven up to 170 degrees C. Butter a baking dish. Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out between 2 sheets of cling film. Remove from the cling film and drape over the baking dish, shaping rough sides inside the dish. This is a free-form tart so there is no need to make it look “pretty” or too even.
Place the baked quince slices on top of the pastry higgledy piggledy, the more rustic the better. Sprinkle the additional sugar liberally over the edges of the pastry.
Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden brown.
Serve warm with whipped cream or thick Greek yoghurt.
The Quirk and the Cool 