Hungarian Shortbread with Quince Jam

I think this is going to be a hugely popular post. Today´s recipe from Baking with Julia, for our TWD group is Hungarian Shortbread, an extra-good, filled shortbread, by contributing baker and pastry chef Gale Gand.

This time our hosts are the ever popular Cher, of CrazyWorldofCher and Lynette, of 1smallkitchen. The full recipe is posted in their sites.

Again I have to improvise, this time with the filling. When I need to make changes because the season here is not the right one for the ingredient, I try to use something similar.

Now, I have a bigger problem than to substitute rhubarb, because I have absolutely no idea what it tastes like. Have never, ever tried it in a pie or crumble or whatever. I have seen it a few times at the market, but it´s not really known here. So, I decided that it should be something not very sweet or juicy per se, since I assumed the rhubarb would have some kind of tartness to counter-balance the sweet dough.

I settled on quince. They are the new fruit in season right now and they´re so hard to work with sometimes, that it will prove a challenge. And I will get them off my mind once and for all; I made quince paste once, many years ago, and let me tell you the state of my poor hands after peeling them raw made me want to run to my room and cry. I swore never to peel another one ever again, especially since this country has commercially good quince paste sold everywhere. But new recipes emerged and I became curious again. I wanted revenge, hell, my hands wanted revenge. So here we are, with a lovely, and a bit chunky quince jam, hand-made especially for you. I added a few tablespoons of pomegranate syrup at the last minute, so that I would have a brighter color. It turned out it brought out the flavor of the quince as well.

The technique for softening this stone fruit (such a well deserved name) is found in a great book I just bought. This master French chef has written two other books, and of course I own all three of them. They´re simply my new favorites for base recipes and techniques. Leave it to the French to do it right, right?

This shortbread recipe has been bookmarked since the beginning. The picture in the book is mouthwatering and it looks like something easy to do and crowd pleasing.

Both things are right. The dough is a regular shortbread mixture of softened butter, sugar and flour with the addition of egg yolks. The interesting part is that the dough is first freezed and then grated onto the prepared pan, then the jam filling is sandwiched between two layers of this raw shortbread grated mess before baking. I guess that´s the secret to it being so moist and almost fluffy. Here you kill two birds with one shot and have your moist, filled soft cookie square as soon as you are able to bite into it. Which in my case was while still warm. Delicious.

If you use a store-bought, good quality jam this is as easy as a crumble. After all, it is almost a double-crusted fruit crumble; it surely tastes like one.

QUINCE JAM

from Desserts, by Michel Roux and other sources

4 quince

¼  cup sugar

½  cup water

3 Tbs pomegranate syrup (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375ºF / 190ºC.

Prick each quince on 4 or 5 different places with a fork, wrap in foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 1 to 1 ¼ hours or until tender, turning 3 or 4 times during cooking. To test, insert a skewer into the flesh; it should go in easily. Unwrap the quince and set aside to cool.

When cool, with a small knife, peel, halve and core the quince, then cut the flesh into small dice.

Place in a medium saucepan together with the sugar and water. Over low heat cook, stirring often so it doesn´t stick to the bottom of the pan, until you have a paste and the color deepens. Add the pomegranate syrup if using.

Let cool completely and store in the refrigerator.





 


Ready to use, after the pomegranate syrup was added