Quince, Apple, and Almond Jalousie (Page 794)

RECIPE #1164

• Date: Friday, April 30, 2010 -- 8pm
• Location: Palo Alto, CA
• Kitchen: Emilee and Brian's Apartment
• Dining Companions: Matty, Emilee, Brian, Sam, Scarecrow, Chris, and Josh G
• Recipe Rating: B+
  

I have been watching for quince at the grocery store for a couple years now, so when I finally saw it at Berkeley Bowl last month I was more than a little excited! I decided to put it to good use to make this dessert for my special gentleman's birthday. I started by cooking slices of quince in a mixture of sugar and water for several hours. I then added slices of apple and cooked it some more. I then stirred in toasted sliced almonds and almond extract and let the filling cool. I drained the filling, reserving the syrup. I rolled out the dough (see post below for dough recipe), forming it into two rectangles. I put the filling between the two rectangles, using some egg wash to seal the layers of pastry together. I cut decorative slits, then chilled the jalousie for an hour. Then I brushed it with egg wash, sprinkled with sugar, and baked until golden brown. I served the jalousie with whipped cream and the reserved syrup. This dessert was pretty good. I had never cooked with quince before, and I was surprised by how long it took to cook. The resulting filling was fragrant and flavorful. Some people were not so convinced by the quince -- Emilee thought the dish would have been better with apples alone. My special gentleman liked the unique flavor that the quince brought to the dessert though. I thought the quince went very well with the almond flavor, which was also quite pronounced. My only complaint was that the pastry dough needed more salt, and hence came out a bit bland. It was almost saved by the generous amount of sugar sprinkled on top, which gave it some sweetness as well as a bit of crunch. With a better dough recipe, this dessert would have been quite nice.

The recipe is here.

Hello from Japan! We have been having an awesome trip so far. I was dreading the long flight to get here, but actually it wasn't bad at all. We had a direct flight from San Francisco to Tokyo which was about ten and a half hours. Then we took a bus from the airport to our hotel and that was it! In total travel time I have had much longer trips trying to get to certain places in Europe. We had a day to do some sightseeing and wander around Tokyo before my special gentleman's conference started. It rained all day, but it was still really fun. When his conference started I headed to Nagoya for several days to visit my thesis advisor, who is now a professor there. My advisor traveled with me from Tokyo to Nagoya, which was nice because I am not so sure I could have navigated it by myself. I did manage to make the return trip successfully on my own though! Nagoya is about an hour and a half from Tokyo on the Shinkansen (aka bullet train), and the train ride went through some beautiful areas. I had a good visit with my advisor in Nagoya and now I am back in Tokyo. Tomorrow we will travel from Tokyo to a math institute in the mountains somewhere, where my special gentleman's conference will continue for a few more days. I have really enjoyed being in Tokyo, but I am also looking forward to getting out of the city and seeing another area of Japan. After a weekend in the mountains we will head back to the US early next week!