Kitchen
Rose Hip & Apple Pastila
Baked apples and rose hips cooked down and dried slowly into a chewy fruit paste — an old Russian sweet, made at home.
Pastila is one of the oldest Russian sweets — baked apple, beaten and dried until it becomes something between a fruit leather and a marshmallow. The famous pastilas of Kolomna and Belyov are whipped with egg white into airy pale layers; this is the plainer, chewier kind made in many home kitchens, where it was a way to keep the apple harvest through winter.
I add a strong infusion of rose hips, which turns it a beautiful deep coral and makes it pleasantly sour.
Rose Hip & Apple Pastila
You will need
For the rose hip infusion
For the pastila
Method
Simmer the rose hips in the water, covered, for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine cloth or coffee filter to catch all the hairs. You want about 150 ml of deep red liquid.
Heat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Halve the apples, leave the skins on, and bake cut side down on a tray for 30–40 minutes, until collapsing.
Scrape the soft flesh from the skins and purée it with the rose hip infusion until very smooth.
Cook the purée in a wide pan over a low heat, stirring often, for about 20 minutes, until it is thick enough to hold a trail from the spoon. Stir in honey and lemon to taste.
Line two baking trays with baking parchment and spread the paste about 5 mm (¼ inch) thick.
Dry in the oven at its lowest setting — around 70–80°C (160–175°F) — with the door propped slightly open, for 5–7 hours, until it is no longer tacky in the middle.
Peel it off the paper while warm, roll it up, and cut into slices.
Notes
Keeping: stored in a tin between sheets of parchment, it keeps for several weeks.
No oven time? A food dehydrator works perfectly, at around 60°C (140°F) for 8–10 hours.
The airy version: for Belyov-style pastila, whisk the cooled purée with egg white and sugar until pale and doubled, then dry in thin layers and stack them.
Plants in this recipe