Experimenting with pate de fruit
Over the past week I've made four separate batches (and flavors) of pate de fruit. Each one has turned out differently. I must have been enjoying a bit of beginner's luck, because the first recipe I tried (cranberry-apple) produced the best result. This was exactly what pate de fruit should be: slightly chewy and packed with gorgeously concentrated flavors of fresh fruit.

I pressed a violet into the top of one of the squares just for kicks. Technically it's an edible flower, but I got it at a garden center nearby and it has probably been sprayed with 4000 cancer-causing chemicals, so it's really just for show.
The other three batches demonstrated the various ways in which one can fail at making pates de fruit. The pineapple-lime flavored candies were flabby; the raspberry version never set and remained a pile of red goo in the pan; and the cranberry had too much pectin, giving it a texture that was more rubbery than chewy. Eventually they all wound up in the trash or in the freezer, awaiting resurrection in a new form.
Pate de fruit seems simple, but really it's one of those wonderfully French recipes that requires piles of fruit and tons of work (including standing over a hot stove stirring gooey, burbling sludge for an hour) in order to produce a minuscule result. When the minuscule result turns out properly, it is indeed a beautiful, gemlike thing. In other cases, however, it becomes ice cream topping or filling for cookies and sweet breads. Which isn't so bad either, I suppose.

I pressed a violet into the top of one of the squares just for kicks. Technically it's an edible flower, but I got it at a garden center nearby and it has probably been sprayed with 4000 cancer-causing chemicals, so it's really just for show.
The other three batches demonstrated the various ways in which one can fail at making pates de fruit. The pineapple-lime flavored candies were flabby; the raspberry version never set and remained a pile of red goo in the pan; and the cranberry had too much pectin, giving it a texture that was more rubbery than chewy. Eventually they all wound up in the trash or in the freezer, awaiting resurrection in a new form.
Pate de fruit seems simple, but really it's one of those wonderfully French recipes that requires piles of fruit and tons of work (including standing over a hot stove stirring gooey, burbling sludge for an hour) in order to produce a minuscule result. When the minuscule result turns out properly, it is indeed a beautiful, gemlike thing. In other cases, however, it becomes ice cream topping or filling for cookies and sweet breads. Which isn't so bad either, I suppose.
8 Comments:
i couldn't get my cranberry-pear ones to set up properly either at christmastime. i was so sad, because the goo was delicious.
oh! we must have used the same recipe from Gourmet, I think. I just subbed in the apples because I was too lazy to buy pears. Maybe apples have more pectin in them and helped contribute to the solidifying process? I'm clueless.
I should like to see some new stories about food. Can you write about weetabix? I heard someone talking about it on television the other day, and I was like, hey, Cindy eats that stuff!
hiya! i am just cruising through all the entries for DMBLGiT, you know, to scope out the competition and all *wink*
the petite little pansy is so precious!
why thank you! too bad i was too scared to eat it because it was coated with toxic pesticides!
Apples definitely have more pectin which is why it set up better. There is also a product out there called Perfect Puree. They have numerous flavors and make great pate de fruit.
I'm experimenting with different desserts. It's my hobby, it relaxes me. I've been trying to find a dessert to make from pitaya, other than sorbet. I was hoping some sort of mousse (some recommended making a semolina mousse but I have no idea what that is) but this fruit pate sounds VERY interesting....do you think it will work with pitaya (i think this may be called dragon fruit or cactus fruit in english) or passionfruit?
hi there - i'm fairly sure it should work fine with passionfruit. i don't know about dragon fruit, but i don't see why not. the best way would be to find a good basic pate de fruit recipe for a similar fruit, sub in the one you want to use, and then if it comes out too firm or too soft, you can adjust the amount of pectin/gelatin. let me know how it turns out!
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