When quince is in season, you could make your own quince paste, but we’ve taken a shortcut and bought ours. While we love this homemade flaky pastry, a good butter-puff pastry would also work well here. Soaking in syrup makes these pastries stickily delicious, but if you prefer a slightly less sweet result, dust them with icing sugar instead.
Ingredients
Flaky pastry
Vanilla-cinnamon syrup
Method
Main
1.For flaky pastry, melt 50gm butter in a
saucepan over low heat and set aside. Pulse
300gm flour, remaining diced butter and ½ tsp
salt in a food processor until pea-sized lumps
of butter remain, add yolk and lemon juice, and
pulse to just combine. Add 125ml iced water
and pulse to just combine, then turn out onto
a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until
smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to rest and chill. Roll out dough on
a lightly floured surface to a 40cm square, brush
evenly with melted butter, then dust lightly with a
little of the remaining flour to soak up the butter.
Fold dough in half from the top down to form a
20cm x 40cm rectangle, then brush with butter
and dust with flour once again. Fold short sides
in toward the centre, overlapping (you’ll now have
a 20cm square), then brush with butter and dust
with flour. Fold top half of the dough again (you’ll
have a 10cm x 20cm rectangle), brush with butter
and dust with flour, then fold short sides in as
before to form a 10cm square. Wrap in plastic
wrap and refrigerate to rest for 30 minutes.
2.For vanilla-cinnamon syrup, stir sugar and
250ml water in a saucepan over medium-high
heat until sugar dissolves, add cinnamon and
vanilla bean and seeds, bring to the boil and cook
until a light syrup forms (4-5 minutes). Add lemon
juice, stir to combine and set aside.
3.Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface to
a 45cm square, trim uneven edges and cut into
16 squares (we’ve used a fluted pastry wheel for
fancy edges). Place a teaspoonful of quince paste
in the centre of half the squares and brush edges
lightly with water. Place remaining pastry squares
on top offsetting them to form eight-point stars
and press around filling to seal. Pinch to form a
flower shape and place on a lightly floured tray.
4.Heat oil in a deep saucepan to 180C. Deep-fry
pastries in batches, turning occasionally, until
golden brown (2-3 minutes). Drain on paper
towels, then serve hot drizzled with vanillacinnamon
syrup and dusted with icing sugar.
