Quince Pear Squares

A simple slab cake drenched and glazed with a tart quince jam. Contains nuts too. Jam and cake – life is sweet.

Using quince jam

I’d found this lovely recipe for quince cake, but as it specified “3 medium quinces” – to simmer them for an hour and a half – I knew I never would get around to actually make this. So when I spotted a jar of quince jam in a delicatessen, I improvised. Turned out nice again, eh?

recipe: Quince Pear Squares

This is for a 23 cm square cake tin
cake:

200 g butter or margarine
200 g caster sugar
3 eggs
225 g self raising flour
1 teasp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 teasp grated lemon peel
75 g chopped toasted pistachios

Cake production time

Preheat the oven to a 180°C, then line a square baking tin with paper.
First, chop and toast the pistachios. In a bowl, cream the butter with electric beaters, then add sugar and beat for 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating just long enough to incorporate them in the mixture. Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and grated lemon). Lastly, fold in the cooled nuts; pour the batter in the prepared baking tin, levelling the top.

Baking

Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes; 5 minutes before it’s done, heat the quince jam with the water in a small sauce pan. Take out the cake and let it cool slightly (5 minutes) then turn it onto a flat base. Drizzle the hot jam over the cake. Cut in squares when cooled. Lovely! I suspect this would work just as *terrificly* with gooseberry jam.