Slow Baked Quince & Honey Panna Cotta

Time to take a step back from the 'scary' cray-cray that was the Lady Gaga Cake, with something slightly more elegant. Quinces, in my humble opinion, are a magical fruit. They start off all yellow, wrinkly and funny looking, smelling like an under ripe apple or pear. But then you cook it for a ridiculously long time and it turns this beautiful rich, rosy red, tender while holding it's shape nicely. Magical! It makes me sad that I only started using them a couple of years ago.

As a home baker, constantly learning and (hopefully) improving, I find it difficult to look past the flaws in the things I bake. For instance, this dish was pretty much going to plan until I decided to plate it up and realised that the pashmak (persian fairy floss) that I wanted to put on top of the quince had turned into a rock hard ball of sugar. ARgh@!!! Much swearing and crankiness ensued. So when I look at this dish, all I can see is the missing fairy floss. Which is a shame because it tasted delicious, perhaps a little too sweet when I drowned it in syrup, but perfect with just a drizzle of the syrup on top. I had to substitute the gelatine leaves for powdered gelatine, but the pannacotta still had a good wobble to it. You can add gelatine to the syrup to set the syrup as the original recipe does, but I was happy to leave it as a liquid.

The quinces were baked for about 4-5 hours in a beautifully aromatic spiced sugar syrup mixture. My whole house was filled with the scent of cinnamon, vanilla and star anise. I wouldn't recommend starting this recipe too late in the evening, as you will find yourself impatiently checking the oven to see if your quince have turned red yet so you can take them out and go to bed. But definitely start it the day before you plan to serve it, to give it a chance to chill overnight. I adapted it from a Gourmet Traveller recipe I've had my eye on, in the hopes that I would change it up a bit with the presentation and the pashmak. But things didn't quite go to plan so it's very similar to the original. To be honest it doesn't really need any of the extra bits, just the panna cotta, with it's intense honey flavour, and the lovely spiced quince are all you need for a great dessert. Even if you don't make the pannacotta, this is my favourite way to cook quince. And the leftover sugar syrup is so nice that it would be a shame to throw it away, hopefully I'll be able to use it for another sweet treat :) (EDIT: Check out what I used it for here)

Slow Baked Spiced Quince & Honey Panna Cotta
(adapted from this Gourmet Traveller recipe)
500g caster sugar
500ml water
2 quince, peeled cored and quartered, reserve trimmings
2 cinnamon quills
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
2 black peppercorns
4-5 star anise

1 1/4 tsp powdered gelatine
400ml pouring cream
100ml milk
80ml honey
30g caster sugar

Preheat oven to 120 degrees C. Bring water and 500g sugar to a gentle boil in a casserole pot, stirring until the sugar dissolve. Simmer until a light syrup forms (about 10 mins) and then add quinces, trimmings and all the spices. Cover pot and bake in oven until quince are tender and have turned a rosy red, about 4 hours. Cool, then refrigerate until chilled, 2-3 hours or overnight.

Place cream, milk, honey and sugar in a medium saucepan and gently bring to the boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and carefully stir in gelatine until it dissolve. Strain mixture and pour into 4-5 glasses or pannacotta mould. Refrigerate until set, about 4-5 hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, cut quince into wedges and place over panna cotta. Strain quince syrup and drizzle some over the top of the quince. Don't throw away the left over syrup! It can be used for other recipes - Check out these Quince Sherbert Marshmallows ;) Optional: top off with some vanilla pashmak.