Poached Quinces:
Place about 400g white sugar and 1 litre of water in your slow cooker. Add two cinnamon sticks and a teaspoon of whole cloves. Set the slow cooker to high and dissolve the sugar (stir occasionally). While the sugar is dissolving, wash and wipe the downy fuzz off 4 quinces. Cut into quarters, peel and remove the cores. Place the quinces AND the peel/cores into the sugar syrup in the slow cooker. Reduce to low and cook overnight. You will have the magic smell of cinnamon infused quinces throughout the house in the morning. Allow the quinces to cool in the syrup then discard the peel/cores, cinnamon sticks and cloves and place the cooled quinces and syrup in a covered container in the fridge. I froze some of the leftover syrup in icecube containers to use in punches or other fruity drinks in summer time. You can also keep the poaching syrup to add to your next batch of poached quinces or to flavour icecream or custards.
Quince muffins:
sift 1 1/2 cups SR flour, 1/4 teaspoon bicarb soda, 1/3 cup brown sugar into a bowl. Mix well, make a well in the centre and add 1/3 cup canola oil, 2/3 cup milk and 1 egg. Add chopped poached quince (I used the equivalent of 1 whole quince). Mix with a fork until it just comes together and spoon into patty pan lined muffin tins (so each patty pan is about 2/3rds full). Cook for 20 - 25 minutes in a fan forced oven at 200c (test with a skewer to make sure they are done). I found that this mix made 12 large or 15 slightly smaller muffins.
Easy Quince Tarte Tatin:
Melt 2 tbs butter with 2 tbs sugar in a frying pan. Add slices of poached quinces (1 used the equivalent of 2 whole quinces) and cook until they are nicely coated in the buttery sugar mixture. Defrost a piece of ready rolled frozen puff pastry and trim to fit in a lightly greased pie dish. Pour a little bit of the poaching syrup into the pie dish, then add the cooked quinces and cover with the pastry. Cook in the oven until the pastry is golden and puffed. To serve you need to put a serving plate over the top of the pie dish and then turn them both over so that the pastry is on the bottom and the quinces are on the top when you take the pie dish away.
