Candy

Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year? A wonderful 2009 for all my readers!
It has been kind of obvious that I haven't been around that much last month. Preparing for the Holidays and the Holidays itself were pretty intense, multiply that with the times my youngest son wakes up in the middle of the night and my pregnancy (did I mention we'll be having yet another son...hoping for a daughter didn't help one bit ;) and you'll get an idea how beat I am. I haven't even posted about the other Christmas desserts and treats I made besides the panforte senese. Beeing so busy I didn't have the time and/or right light to make a lot of good pictures. Luckily the pictures for these quinces candies were ok.
I call them quince candy but it is known under lots of local names: membrillo, cotignac, kotonjata/sir od dunja to name a few. It's pretty much boils down to (no pun intended ;) making a very stiff jam made of quinces. Very easy to make, healthy (if you don't count all the sugar ;), beautiful in colour and a wonderful gift for friends. Will be making those more often during quince season.
Besides these quince treats and the panforte I also served two type of almonds cookies, blood orange salad with pear sorbet and an Italian cheese platter for Christmas dessert. Unfortunately I didn't have time to finish the Daring Bakers entremet in time to serve as well. There was more than enough so I didn't mind that much.
(sorry about the blurry picture)



I made two kinds of almonds cookies because I was looking for a recipe that would come close to amaretti di Saronno. I thought I found a recipe in an old cookbook by Artusi but those turned out to be something I like to call 'accidental macarons'.



Even though the recipe didn't even call for confectioners sugar they had the appearence of macarons (only appearance because I dried them out so they were meringue like). They turned out delicious but not as pretty and even as I hoped. I didn't even want to serve them for dessert but I failed making nougat twice and I had to fill my etagère with something so I used them anyway ;) They turned out to be one of the favourites :)
The other almond cookies had honey and cinnamon besides almonds, sugar and egg whites. They were chewy and a tad bitter (but good) due to the the 10% bitter almonds I used and maybe also because of the honey.
This last picture is the care package I for the family to take home after the Christmas dinner. It contained panforte, quince candy, winter tea, pandolce and almond cookies.



Quince candy (adapted from here)

4 quinces, cored, peeled and quartered (add a little lemon juice against colouring)
... g sugar (same weight as the cooked quinces)
lemon juice to taste (I used 4 tbs for about 1 kg of quinces)
granulated sugar for coating (optional)

Cover the quinces with water. Boil until tender (about 20-30 minutes). Drain and weight the quinces. Add the same weight in sugar. Add lemon juice and cook for 1-2 hours, stirring in between. Mixture should thicken and turn orange. A wooden spoon drawn through the bottom of the pot leaves a track.
Meanwhile prepare a sheet pan or something by covering the bottom with baking paper. Pour or scoop the quince mixture into the prepared pan and spread it out. Top with another piece of baking paper in order to make an even smoother surface. Allow to cool and set.
Cut into desired shape. Allow to dry for a day or more until dry(ish) to the touch.
Roll in granulated sugar for a more candy-like appearance.
Will keep for a long time.

The spinach quiche I wanted to bake last weekend will be baked next week. I was too busy and tired to make it. But I did manage to bake something and I liked the smell and even the taste :) It's a spice cake I sometimes make. Even though it was delicious it didn't look anything as pretty as the one I baked here. I did use a different recipe so probably that was the reason behind it. I won't be sharing the spice cake with you because the pictures would have been too ugly ;)
What I do want to share with you is this simple and healthy sweet I made for my birthday party some month's ago from Claudia Roden's The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. Don't you just love sweets with only 3 ingredients?

This is my entry to Suganya's Vegan Ventures.

Apricotina (from the Dutch version of The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden)

makes about 50

1 ½ tbs pistachio's, finely chopped
1 ½ tbs caster sugar
500 g (1 lb) dried apricots
some tbs icing sugar
more icing sugar
pistachio's

Mix the chopped pistachio's and the caster sugar together, set aside.
Process the apricots in a foodprocessor.
Add some tablespoons of icing sugar. Knead by hand until well mixed (wet your hands a bit from time to time to prevent sticking).
Roll the apricot puree into a small ball, press in the middle with your finger in order to create a depression to put a little bit of the pistachio mixture inside. Cover the filling and roll into a ball. Roll the ball in icing sugar and press a pistachio into it. Repeat with the rest of the apricot puree.
Allow to dry for a night.

These little balls were part of the Middle Eastern style dessert I served on my birthday party. They are incredibly easy to make, require no baking or cooking, are gluten-free, vegan, sugar-free (well almost), dairy-free and most important: delicious! The only two real ingredients are walnuts and dates. Those two are made into a paste in the food processor, rolled into balls and (optionally) rolled in icing sugar. Their taste reminded me of marzipan but with a walnut taste. The dates make the balls moist and sweet but not heavy on the date taste. Will try making them with almonds next time, see if it's even closer to marzipan.
As this is a recipe that doesn't require any baking or cooking, I'm sending it over to Grace of A Southern Grace for her event Beat the Heat.

Halawa tamr or date and walnut balls (from the Dutch edition of A New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden)

250 g (9 oz) walnuts
250 g (9 oz) dates, stoned
icing sugar (optional)

Process the walnuts and dates in a food processor until they are a paste. Roll into small balls and roll through icing sugar if desired.

btw ever seen such a short recipe?

Another Brazilian candy from Patricia's Technicolor Kitchen: Beijinho. Like the brigadeiro I made a while ago they are delicious! That is if you like the very sweet and coconutty ;) It easy to make but remember to keep stirring otherwise the milk will burn. I used smaller paper cups than last time but probably I made the balls about the same size as the brigadeiro because I only got 25 out of them....

Beijinho (from Technicolor Kitchen by Patricia)

makes 40 (or in my case 25 ;)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (395g)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
5 tablespoons unsweetened desiccated coconut

Mix the condensed milk, butter and coconut in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly – when the bottom of the pan starts to show and the mixture is a bit thicker, remove from heat and immediately pour the mixture onto a greased plate and let it cool completely before using. Lightly coat your hands with butter, grab small portions of candy and roll into 2 cm balls. Roll them in unsweetened desiccated coconut or granulated sugar and place in small fluted paper cups. Decorate each ball with a clove.

The boy friend brought home these egg yolk sweets from Lisbon recently. My 'order' was for some Pastéis de Belém but unfortunately he didn't have time to go the Rua de Belém where the one and only Pastéis de Belém can be found. Instead he bought Rebuçados de ovo de Portalegre which are basically candied egg yolks (the two ingredients it consist of are pasteurised egg yolk and sugar). I'm not a big egg yolk lover but had to taste one to see how it was. It tasted pretty much like very sweet egg yolks covered in sugar shell. Definitely something different than the candy I'm used to ;)



Still hope to taste Pastéis de Belém...I've read that they are very hard to copy so I won't bother with trying...not before I taste the real thing anyway...