Quinces are a lesser-known fall fruit that retains many “wild” characteristics that have been bred out of many of our supermarket fruits. They must be cooked before being eaten, and their flavor is reminiscent of apples and pears, with some deeper spiced notes.
You can use any shape mold you desire, as long as it is deep enough to accommodate the fruit filling. The following recipe makes 1 batch of fruit puree, so you would need to double the ingredients and repeat the procedure for making both types of purees. You can use all dark or all white chocolate, if you prefer.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 3 medium apples OR 2 large quinces
- 1-1/4 cup granulated sugar
- ½ tablespoon butter
- Small can of pears (optional)
- Yellow or green food coloring (optional)
- 4 ounces white chocolate
- 4 ounces dark chocolate
- Candy molds
Preparation:
1. Peel your apple or quinces, and place them in a large saucepan half-full of water. Poach the fruit over medium heat until very tender. It will be about 25 minutes for the apples, and 45 minutes-1 hour for the quinces.
2. Drain water and allow fruit to briefly cool. Cut into pieces and remove core.
3. Place in food processor and blend until mixture is uniform in texture and easy to pour. If the fruit puree is too stiff, you can use syrup from the canned pears to thin it out. The taste of the syrup is fairly neutral, so it will not clash with the fruit flavor.
4. Place the puree in a medium saucepan with the sugar. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring constantly, for 4 minutes.
5. After 4 minutes, add the butter and continue to boil, stirring, for another 3 minutes. At this point, if you are making several purees, you might want to tint them with food coloring to distinguish the different flavors. I chose to leave the apple a natural color and add 1 drop of green food coloring to the quince puree.
6. Remove from the heat and pour into an 8x8 inch pan.
7. Allow puree to cool completely, either at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
8. Once puree is cool, you can being to prepare the chocolate molds. Melt or temper the chocolate.
9. Spoon a small amount of the desired chocolate in your mold. Using a small paintbrush, brush the chocolate up the sides of the mold to the very top. Hold the mold up to the light, and make sure that there are no transparent areas where the chocolate is too thin. Repeat until all molds are filled, and allow the chocolate to set.
10. Using a spoon or a piping bag, fill the chocolate molds with your selected puree.
11. Spoon chocolate over the puree, sealing it in the candy and swirling the mold to make sure it covers the top completely.
12. Allow the chocolate to set, and once it is fully hardened, remove from the molds.
13. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
