• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Charlotte Pike

Award-winning cookery writer, teacher and chef

  • Home
  • About Me
    • About
    • Inspiration
  • My Recipes
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Baking
    • Recipe Index
  • My Shop
  • My Classes
  • My Foodie Guides
  • My Demos & Events
  • Contact Me
  • Charlotte’s Kitchen – Cooking & Catering
  • Online Consultations

Cooking with quinces

13 November 2012 By Charlotte Pike 11 Comments

Quinces are one of my very favourite fruits. They look so familiar, yet unusual. Their shape reminds me of pears, but that waxy, furry skin and striking colour is a giveaway.

I’d love to have a quince tree one day. I did see some for sale at Petersham Nurseries last year, and had to exercise some restraint – it’s just not practical at the moment. So, the second best option is picking some up from my local greengrocers in Wimborne Minster.

I decided to bake them again this year. Unfortunately, someone, who shall remain nameless, in fact threw the baked quinces away before I managed to take a photo of them. I was not impressed.

I’ll leave you with my recipe for spiced baked quinces, which I really rather enjoyed. Photos to come next autumn!

Baked spiced quinces

Serves 6

Ingredients

  • 6 quinces
  • 750ml water
  • 300g sugar
  • 4 star anise
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • 1 cinnamon stick (large)
  • zest of an orange
  • zest of a lemon

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 160 C Fan
  2. I poured the water into a large Le Creuset baking dish and added the sugar and all flavourings. Stir well.
  3. I then peeled the quinces, one at a time, cutting them into quarters and removing the core. As soon as each quarter was prepared, I dropped them into the flavoured water in the dish. I worked as quickly and neatly as I could, as the the quince browns very quickly
  4. I then covered the dish with foil and baked for 3 hours until tender
  5. We enjoyed these baked quinces with some natural yoghurt for a light dessert

Filed Under: Baking Tagged With: Baked quinces, quince recipe, spiced quince, What to do with quinces

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jude A Trifle Rushed says

    13 November 2012 at 10:52 pm

    What a lovely recipe, I made some membrillo, which was a disaster, but have four quinces left. I’m savouring the scent as they sit in the bowl.
    I’m meeting a friend at The Nurseries on Thursday, so I’ll lookout for the trees!

    Reply
    • Charlotte Pike says

      14 November 2012 at 1:21 pm

      Thank you Jude. What a shame the membrillo didn’t work. I absolutely love it with manchego – we always have it as part of our Christmas cheeseboard, but I cheat and buy it from Neal’s Yard with the cheese…

      Have fun at the Nurseries – you are so lucky to leave nearby Jude! x

      Reply
  2. Andrea Mynard says

    14 November 2012 at 8:55 pm

    This recipe looks great and I love your picture of the bowl of quinces. Much better than I managed to take when I blogged about making membrillo. I planted a quince tree but have harvested 1 quince so far! Ever optimistic though, will come back to this recipe next year.

    Reply
    • Charlotte Pike says

      14 November 2012 at 10:57 pm

      Thank you Andrea – good luck with your crop! Keep me posted!

      Reply
  3. laura@howtocookgoodfood says

    14 November 2012 at 10:20 pm

    Afraid I cannot share your love of these most beautiful fruits simply because the smell of them cooking doesn’t agree with me!
    There is a communal tree on our allotment and next year I shall be handing out fruits to Helen and Jude and whoever else would like them. No -one on the allotment seems to want them….. x

    Reply
    • Charlotte Pike says

      14 November 2012 at 10:58 pm

      Oh really Laura. That’s interesting. Smell is the one thing that can really put me off of an ingredient. Lucky for you no-one in the allotment wants the quince, as they can be hard to get hold of! x

      Reply
  4. Choclette says

    15 November 2012 at 9:10 pm

    Unlike Laura, I adore the scent of quinces and I love the taste too. Quince jelly and quince cheese is pretty much as far as I’ve got with them though. Last year we planted a quince tree at my mother’s along with a mulberry and a medlar, so I’m looking forward to reaping the reward in a few years time 😉

    Reply
    • Charlotte Pike says

      16 November 2012 at 2:10 pm

      Oh how wonderful Choclette – very envious!

      Reply
  5. Jacobien says

    13 December 2012 at 7:34 am

    Love your site! In Holland we cook with quinces (kweeperen) with core and peel. It’is the pectine in there you need for the membrillo. You probably already have the recipe, however if you are interested I can translate (my poor way) to English.
    http://cobuse.blogspot.nl/2012/10/gepofte-kweeperen-met-honing.html

    Reply
    • Charlotte Pike says

      13 December 2012 at 7:57 am

      Thank you. This is really interesting, thank you for sharing – I adore membrillo!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Best of the Foodie Blogs: Ten at Ten (45) | Foodies 100 says:
    14 November 2012 at 9:47 am

    […] eaten quince jelly several times but I’ve never tried cooking with them myself. These baked spiced quinces from Charlotte’s Kitchen Diary look really simple to prepare and make a delicious, and […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

About Charlotte

Charlotte Pike, award-winning cookbook author, cookery teacher and chef.

Author of five bestselling cookery books, leading independent cookery teacher and private chef, running Charlotte's Kitchen catering company. Charlotte is also the current Chair of the Guild of Food Writers.

Charlotte is known for her recipes that really work, and as a professionally trained chef who writes about food.

Charlotte lives in the English countryside and is passionate about great home cooking using the best seasonal ingredients.

Subscribe to my site

Get in touch

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Archives

Search

Facebook

Buy my cookbooks

Footer

About

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies

Latest Posts

  • Planning a New Kitchen
  • Charlotte’s Online Cookery Classes
  • Chorizo, Butterbean and Cabbage Soup
  • Pandemic Pantry Podcast Returns
  • Introducing Pandemic Pantry Podcast

Books

  • Charlotte's Private Cookery Class £250.00
  • Online Consultation - 30 Minutes £50.00
  • Online Consultation - 60 Minutes £100.00
  • SMOKED by Charlotte Pike £18.99
  • Fermented by Charlotte Pike £18.99

Copyright © 2021 Charlotte Pike.
Website by Callia Web