Honey and bay quince jellies
- Published: 25 Nov 19
- Updated: 9 Oct 24
Few things say autumn quite like quince, a star ingredient from October’s seasonal produce. Chef Gill Meller’s quince jellies, with an aromatic star anise crumble, is the perfect autumnal pud reserved for adults.
Or try this spiced quince and ginger upside-down cake with caramel custard for another show-stopping pud.
- Serves 4
- Hands-on time 25 min, simmering time 1 hour 30 min to 1 hour 50 min, plus cooling and setting
Ingredients
- 2 large ripe quinces (600-700g in total) peeled, quartered, cored and sliced
- 125g golden caster sugar
- 75g runny honey
- Juice ½ lemon
- 4 fresh bay leaves, torn
- 6 fine gelatine leaves (we used Costa, from Waitrose and Ocado)
- Double cream to serve (optional)
For the crumble
- 75g plain flour
- 50g butter
- 25g golden caster sugar
- 25g soft brown sugar
- 25g porridge oats
- 1 star anise, finely crushed in a pestle and mortar
You’ll also need…
- 4 equal-size moulds (about 150ml) or glasses
Method
- Put the quinces, sugar, honey, lemon juice and bay leaves in a large heavy-based pan (one with a lid) and add 500ml cold water. Set over a medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. Turn down the heat, cover with the lid and cook the quinces, stirring regularly, for 1 hour 30-50 minutes until very soft (see food team’s tip).
- Switch off the heat and allow the liquid to cool to room temperature. Pour everything into a sieve lined with muslin (or a clean J-cloth) set over a pan. Either leave the juice from the fruit to drip through of its own accord or gather up the cloth and encourage the juice out by gently squeezing the fruit. Either way you need 500ml liquid. If you’re shy of this quantity, return the cooked fruit to the pan, add a splash of fresh water, mix it up, then squeeze it out again (see Gill’s tip).
- Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes until soft.
- Warm the fragrant quince liquid to just below boiling point, squeeze any excess water from the soaked gelatine leaves, add them to the pan, then stir well to dissolve.
- Pour the liquid into the moulds/glasses and chill for at least 5 hours until set (see Make Ahead).
- Heat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/gas 5. Combine all the ingredients for the crumble in a large bowl with a pinch of salt, rubbing everything together with your fingertips until it forms clumps and lumps. Tip the mixture out onto a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and cook for 20 minutes, mixing regularly, so it colours evenly. Set aside to cool (see Make Ahead).
- Turn out the jellies onto serving plates and serve with crumble on the side, with double cream if you like.
- Recipe from October 2019 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 458kcals
- Fat
- 11.2g (6.7g saturated)
- Protein
- 3.7g
- Carbohydrates
- 84.9g (66.4g sugars)
- Fibre
- 1.2g
- Salt
- 0.3g
delicious. tips
After squeezing the juice from it, keep the cooked fruit in the fridge. It’s great with ice cream or porridge.
Buy quinces from farmers’ markets, greengrocers and finefoodspecialist.co.uk.
Cooking times for quinces vary but if the pan is beginning to look dry in step 1, add more water.
Make the jellies and crumble up to 2 days ahead. Cover and chill the jellies and keep the crumble in a separate airtight container.
Buy ingredients online
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