Photo illustration by Christie Vuong/The Globe and Mail; Food styling by Nicole Billark/The Globe and Mail
Candied fruit is good, actually – these chefs are proving it
If you’re new to candying, start here. I learned this quick method from the excellent book Tartine by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson. It has its limits, in that it will only work for relatively small pieces of fruit. It also won’t make a product that is completely shelf-stable, but you can’t beat it for speed! The final product works beautifully for baking with or serving on its own.
Only use fruit with a strong cell structure that can handle a hearty simmer (not raspberries, for instance). Good candidates include pineapples, kiwis, quinces, pears, cherries, apple peels and thin-skinned citrus like clementines and kumquats. Because only you know how much fruit you want to candy, I prefer to use ratios. The ratio for the syrup is 1:1 water to sugar by cup, so make as much or as little as you need, depending on how much fruit you have. While I generally prefer to measure by weight, what’s important here is that there is enough syrup to cover the fruit. For each cup of prepared fruit, you’ll need about 190 ml (¾ cup) water, 150 g (¾ cup) sugar and 1 tablespoon glucose or light corn syrup.
To prepare the fruit, peel, core if necessary, and slice about ¼-inch thick. Cherries should be halved and pitted. Clementines can be cut into six to eight wedges. Kumquats can be sliced or quartered. To candy the fruit, in a medium saucepan, bring the water, sugar, and glucose to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Add the fruit and immediately reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook until the fruit is uniformly glossy and translucent, anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes depending on the fruit.
Soft fruits like cherries, for instance, will take less time, while dense fruits like quinces will take the longest. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely in the syrup at room temperature, preferably overnight, before storing, drying, or finishing.
Stollen Pound Cake
I love stollen, the rich German Christmas bread full of candied fruit, especially the version with a thick vein of marzipan running through the centre. But I’ll be honest with you – when I’m feeling lazy, I’m not always up for a yeasted dough, what with its kneading and rising and shaping. Thus, I created this very easy-to-make pound cake, with all the flavors of stollen (except for yeasty) and complete with a marzipan tunnel, and it’s pretty impressive in its own right! This is particularly true if you bring it to the table on a beautiful cake stand garnished with candied cranberries and crystallized rosemary. As far as mixed fruit goes, use whatever you like, but I usually go for some mix of citrus, cherries, and quince. Note: You will want to start this the night before.
Copyright © 2024 Camilla Wynne. Photographs by Mickaël A. Bandassak. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
