short pastry and quince pastries

I continue on my way, making you share in how good simple things are! Short pastry, quince paste, almonds and nothing more for these pastries whose taste reminds us of our south … Lecce and its magnificent pasticciotti! Sometimes I wonder how it is possible that these apples so ugly, impossible to eat, hard to use only to hit a target, can then turn into a joy of life that takes us back in time with that ancient taste.

As a child, when the notorious snacks were fortunately banned from the diet of us children, Aunt Carla prepared these sweets for me, which I hid to fight the urge to eat them all at once. Last Monday, before returning from Taranto, while greeting my friends Tiziana gave me a box full of quince made by her.
When I opened the box, I had no doubts, I immediately thought that as soon as possible I would have to try to make aunt Carla’s pastries and so it was!

To prepare about 40 pastries started with the pastry:
Sift together 200g flour, a pinch of salt and the tip of a teaspoon of powdered ammonia then add 70g of sugar. Work very quickly with 100g of butter (small pieces) at room temperature and 2 lightly beaten egg yolks. Cover the dough and let it rest at least 30 minutes in a cool place but NOT IN THE REFRIGERATOR!

After the rest time, roll out the dough into a rectangular shape and fill it with the quince filling by folding the dough sheet on itself to obtain a log. Brush the surface of the log with the white of the egg, make the almonds stick together and finish with a little granulated sugar. Bake at 150 degrees for 15 minutes then cut the log into many pastries and cook for another 5 minutes. Allow to cool completely and eat.
Tiziana’s quince jelly was prepared with the Palma D’Onofrio recipe from her book SOS CUOC @ published by Sonzogno.