flipApple pastila with honey
Apple pastila with honey
Why this dish? A methodical mind devoted to preserving and classifying — she built a mineral cabinet and a library in several languages — Dashkova appreciated these apple sweets that were dried in autumn to stock the table all winter, even on the Troitskoye estate.
Sour apple paste cooked with honey, long dried until it becomes a supple, fruity confection that keeps for months. One of the oldest Russian sweets.
See how autumn stores itself: we take the sourest apples from the orchard, cook them down to a pulp, sweeten them with honey, and spread them thin to dry in the warm oven for days on end. This gives a fruity paste that I keep in a box all winter and cut into strips for evening tea. I like things that keep and classify — my minerals, my books, and even my apples. Taste: it is sour and sweet at once, like good conversation.
- •Sour apples (old varieties) — a full basket (base fruit)
- •Honey — in proportion (sweetener and preservative)
- •Egg white — a few (to lighten the paste (optional))
Apple pastila with honey
Sour apple paste cooked with honey, long dried until it becomes a supple, fruity confection that keeps for months. One of the oldest Russian sweets.
Why this dish? A methodical mind devoted to preserving and classifying — she built a mineral cabinet and a library in several languages — Dashkova appreciated these apple sweets that were dried in autumn to stock the table all winter, even on the Troitskoye estate.
See how autumn stores itself: we take the sourest apples from the orchard, cook them down to a pulp, sweeten them with honey, and spread them thin to dry in the warm oven for days on end. This gives a fruity paste that I keep in a box all winter and cut into strips for evening tea. I like things that keep and classify — my minerals, my books, and even my apples. Taste: it is sour and sweet at once, like good conversation.
Ingredients (period version)
- Sour apples (old varieties) — a full basket (base fruit)
- Honey — in proportion (sweetener and preservative)
- Egg white — a few (to lighten the paste (optional))
Ingredients
- Tart apples (e.g., Boskoop, Reinette) — 1 kg (fruity purée)
- Honey — 100 g (sweetness, binder)
- Egg white — 1 (optional) (lighter, airier texture)
- Lemon juice — a dash (brightness (optional))
Method
- Cook peeled and chopped apples in the oven or covered until they collapse, then purée finely.
- Mix the hot purée with the honey and reduce over low heat until a thick paste forms.
- For a lighter version, fold a stiffly beaten egg white into the warm purée (optional).
- Spread the paste in a thin layer (5 mm) on a sheet of parchment paper.
- Dry in a very low oven (50–60 °C, door ajar) for 6 to 10 hours until the paste is supple and not sticky; cut into strips and store in an airtight container.
How it was made : Apple pastila dates back to the Russian Middle Ages (Kolomna region), where it was slowly dried in the declining heat of the Russian oven after bread baking. The version beaten with egg white, lighter and frothier (Belov), spread later. Before refined sugar, honey provided sweetness and preservation.
The contemporary twist : Roll the pastila into tight little rolls, like fruit leather, for a no-added-sugar treat to slip into a schoolbag.
Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova · Charactorium
