hazelnut and quince tart
Autumn is in full swing and a few weeks ago I spied the first quinces in Harris Farm in their ‘imperfect’ section. I scored a bag of 5 for $6 (a steal!). I kept tossing up what to do with them - Jelly? A paste for cheese? Poached up and put on big brown sugar meringues? In the midst of this indecision I had a baby so the quinces just sat there. A week later, at the 11th hour, I decided to poach them up so as not to waste them. There they sat in the fridge in all their crimson glory waiting to be turned into something.
I followed David Lebovitz’ recipe for poached quinces as I normally do for its simplicity and practicality. If you want to get fancy you can add any number of spices and aromatics to your poaching liquid but if you want a recipe for poached quinces that doesn’t beat around the bush and produces perfectly blushing fruit that isn’t soggy each time this is the one. He recommends topping your pot with a sheet of baking paper with a hole cut in the middle for steam to escape from, I think this might be the trick to keeping the liquid at the perfect simmer for the right amount of time. Without the paper your liquid will reduce faster and leave your uncooked fruit to stick to the bottom.
There is nothing quite like the smell (or look!) of cooked quince. It might feel like a daunting task, especially if you have never cooked them before, but it is well worth it. Each year I like to make a batch of quince paste to go alongside some Manchego so hopefully so of you will give that a go too once I write the recipe down.
This time I decided to put them into a tart. This easy tart recipe is one that I tweak constantly depending on the fruit or jam I have on hand. This version riffs on a traditional frangipane filling with hazelnut meal instead of almond and has a nice layer of strawberry jam on the base and the poached quinces layered on top (you can see of these lovely layers in the photo below).
Hazelnut and Quince Tart
Base
250g Nice Biscuits (alternatively you could use Scotch Fingers with an extra scant tablespoon of brown sugar)
150g butter
Filling
150g butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup ground hazelnuts
1/4 plain flour
1/2 cup of strawberry jam
1 1/2 cups sliced poached quince
Icing sugar to serve
Instruction
Preheat oven to 180 C
Pulse biscuits in food processor until they resemble fine bread crumbs. If you don’t have a food processor you could crush up the biscuits and put them in a zip lock bag before giving the bag a good bash with a rolling pin to achieve the same results. Melt 150g butter and pour into the biscuit crumbs and process to combine. You want the mix to look like wet sand.
Spread mixture into a 22cm removable base tin, press down firmly until you have a nice, even base and sides and place in fridge for 30 mins until nice and firm.
Place 150g softened butter in a mixing bowl and cream together with sugar and vanilla. Once light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time and beat until just combined.
Add the ground hazelnuts and flour and fold in with a spatula until you have a thick cake batter. Try to keep some air in there with gentle folds.
Spread the jam over the biscuit base. Top with the hazelnut mixture.
Arrange the slices of poached quinces on top of the tart, press in gently with your fingers. Make sure you put enough fruit on top as the filling will puff up a bit.
Bake for 30 - 35 mins until golden and set.
Allow to cool completely in tart tin before removing and serving with icing sugar dusted over the top.
Serve with a dollop of mascarpone if desired.
Enjoy!
