Anonymous Citrus and Chile Pâte de Fruit

Yes, that’s correct:  Anonymous Citrus.  I could have called it “little, orange unidentified citrus fruits that finally grew on my tree and chile pâte de fruit” but I get annoyed by recipes with really long titles. 

The truth is that I still don’t know for certain what kind of tree I have.  I may never be certain.  I thought mandarins until I tasted one.  Then I thought calamondins.  Then I saw Shea’s Rangpur limes and that seemed like a very plausible option.  I do not know what these are.  What I do know is that they are small, extremely tart fruits on a thorny tree that put up so much of a fight when I tried to pick them that I had to clip the stems.  If there are any citrus experts out there, feel free to chime in with suggestions.

Beyond trying to figure out what kind of citrus I have, I’ve also had to figure out what to do with it.  As you may recall, the marmalade didn’t quite work out as well as I had hoped.  In light of that, I didn’t feel the need to make any more with the remaining six cups of prepared fruit.  Since these fruits seem to have a very high pectin content, I felt a pâte de fruit attempt was in order.  

All in all, these turned out better than I anticipated.  I was fairly certain they would set well, but I was more concerned about the taste.  To be honest, these probably will not be my favorite, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The more of them I ate, the more I liked them.  Since the fruits are so tart and lime-like and I think lime and chile are a fabulous combination, I added one-half teaspoon of cayenne.  You don’t even notice it at first.  At first, you get the sweetness from the sugar coating.  Then the tart from the citrus hits you as the pâte de fruit starts to melt in your mouth.  It’s not until you swallow that you notice the chile and then it heats up the back of your throat.  If you don’t like spicy, the cayenne could be reduced or completely omitted.

The recipe is below if you ever find yourself with a surplus of small, extremely tart citrus fruits.

(Apologies for the blurry pics.  I realized halfway through I forgot to change the settings on my camera.)

The set on this was nearly perfect. 

It cut like a dream - no swearing involved.

 

I rolled some in granulated sugar, some in turbinado.

Anonymous Citrus and Chile Pâte de Fruit

Equipment: 

digital scale; large (about 6 quart), heavy-bottomed pan; blender or food processor; mesh sieve; heat-proof silicon spatula; candy thermometer; parchment paper; 9 x 13 baking pan; containers for measuring out ingredients; baking sheet for finished candies

Ingredients:

12 - 13 Rangpur limes, calamondin oranges or other small sour oranges

579 g water, divided (575 g + 4 g)

1350 g granulated sugar, divided (135 g + 1215 g)

1/4 – 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (totally optional)

31 g powdered pectin (I used Ball flex-batch pectin)

200 g light corn syrup

4 g citric acid (also called sour salt)

Non-stick cooking spray

Granulated or turbinado sugar for rolling

Quarter the citrus and thinly slice, removing seeds as you go.  (Or check out Shea’s method of preparing citrus.)  Add the sliced citrus and 575 g of the water to the large pan.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Simmer five minutes, remove from heat and let sit 8 hours or overnight.

Spray a little bit of the cooking spray on the bottom of the baking pan to keep the parchment in place.  Line it with parchment on the bottom and all sides.  I make diagonal cuts from the corners to make the parchment sheet fit in the pan better.  Lightly spray the parchment with cooking spray and set the pan aside.

After the fruit has sat and cooled, puree it with its liquid in batches in the blender or food processor.  Pour the puree through the mesh sieve into a container.  Rinse out the pan, set it on the scale and zero out the weight of the pan.  Measure 1350 g of the citrus puree into the pan.

Over medium heat, bring the puree up to 120°F on the candy thermometer.  Meanwhile, combine the 135 g of sugar with all of the pectin and stir to combine.  When the puree reaches 120°F, add the sugar/pectin mixture and stir well to dissolve.  Bring the mixture up to a boil.  (This may take some time.  Stir occasionally to keep from scorching on the bottom.)  When a full boil is achieved, boil for one minute then add the remaining sugar and the corn syrup.  Stir to dissolve the sugar. 

Continue to cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches 223°F.  (Of note, this is the standard temperature for pâte de fruit but I only made it to about 215°F when I realized mine was already beginning to set.  Use your own judgment.)  Mix the citric acid with the 4 g of water to form a slurry.  When the puree reaches 223°F, pour in the citric acid slurry and cook for 30 seconds.

Immediately pour the mixture into the prepared pan.  Allow the pâte de fruit to cool overnight.

The following day, remove the pâte de fruit from the pan.  Cut into cubes with a thin-bladed knife or cookie cutters sprayed with cooking spray.  Just before serving, coat with sugar and place in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

So Close & Yet So Far

As I was prodding the corner of the pâte de fruit before bed last night, I was really thinking I'd nailed it this time.  Almost.

Beyond the fact that I didn't butter the parchment, cutting these things is a task to try one's patience.  First I tried a cutter dipped in hot water.  Nope.  After washing and drying the cutter, I smeared some butter on it.  Not happening.  I repeated these endeavors with a chef's knife.  Not so much.  My third attempt was a pizza cutter dipped in hot water.  Marginal success.

If you look closely you can see little white pectin blobs in a couple of them.

I say marginal success because these were just shy of having the firm texture I wanted.  So while the pizza cutter did a decent job of cutting, the pieces eventually melded back together.  Although I did get a few nice squares cut, the shape was totally lost when I tried to get them off of the parchment.  I tried to massage them back into shape with a small offset spatula dipped in water but, again, the results were marginal.

While I am a bit frustrated and it's tempting to give up, I'm too close to getting it right to throw in the towel now.  And while these are far from attractive, the taste makes up for their appearance. 

Given the fact that, by weight, there's more sugar than fruit I really thought they would be toothache sweet like my last batch was.  Surprisingly, not.  Ancho was my first choice for the chile.  The jar turned out to be empty though, so I used the cayenne.  It actually works really well.  It lets the mango flavor come through at first, and then the heat follows it up without being overwhelming.  Other than struggling to get them off of the parchment, I'm not mad at these.



But I still need to figure out how to get the firmer texture.  Do I need to increase the pectin?  Do I need to cook them to a slightly higher temperature?  Temperature may be my issue.  It's difficult to pinpoint 223 degrees F precisely on my Taylor thermometer.  I'm thinking it's time to look into a Maverick digital thermometer.

There are a few other things to clear off my calendar before I can make time to try these again.  Next week I'll be making my caramels for the food blogger bake sale in St. Louis.  And after that I have to do some cupcakes for a tasting with a potential wedding cake client.

In the meantime, this is my recipe.  I recommend the 8" pan vs the 9" x 13" I used, and definitely
BUTTER THE PARCHMENT.

Mango-Chile Pâte de Fruit

1 Tbs butter

13g powdered pectin (1 Tbs)*

625g granulated sugar, divided (about 2-3/4 cups), plus extra for dredging

1g ground cayenne pepper (1/4 tsp)

450g pureed fresh mango (2 cups)

10g glucose (1 tsp)

4g citric acid powder (1/2 tsp)

4g water (1/2 tsp)

Spray an 8” square pan with a small amount of cooking spray, or rub with some butter, and line with parchment.  (The cooking spray/butter keeps the parchment in place.)  Rub enough butter onto the parchment to create a smooth, thin layer.  You may not need it all. 

 In a small bowl, combine the pectin with 60g (1/4 cup) of the sugar and whisk to combine thoroughly.  In a separate bowl, combine 50g (3 Tbs plus 2 tsp) of sugar with the cayenne pepper and whisk to combine.

In a large pot, combine the mango puree and the sugar/cayenne mixture.  Bring to 120°F over medium heat.  Whisk in the sugar/pectin mixture and bring to a boil.  Boil for one minute.

Add the glucose and the remaining 515g (2-1/4 cups) sugar.  Heat to 223°F, stirring to avoid scorching.  Just before the mixture reaches 223°F, combine the citric acid and water.  Stir in the citric acid solution once temperature is reached and cook an additional 30 seconds.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.  Allow to sit, uncovered, for 24 hours before cutting.  Remove from the pan to a cutting board and use a pizza cutter dipped in warm water to cut into squares or try using a buttered cutter to cut into desired shapes.  Dredge in additional granulated sugar.  Coarse turbinado sugar may be pretty as well.

*For this recipe I used Sure-Jell 100% Natural Premium Fruit Pectin