Strawberry Pate de Fruits

One of my cooking goals was to make those luscious jelly candies--Pate de Fruit. My friend Jill was kind enough to offer to make them with me (moral support!). Until last week I was completely ignorant of how difficult these little fruit jewels are to make. I'd assumed that you just cooked fruit, sugar, and pectin and that's it. But, I found that so many of the recipes called for things like citric acid, tartaric acid, liquid glucose, or apple pectin. I wanted to stick with a simple recipe, so I used one in Lenotre's candy book.

I couldn't find fresh strawberries at the grocery store, so I had to use frozen. The first batch of jellies I made didn't set-up enough, and I think that there was too much water in the frozen berries. So I made a second batch, using the same recipe, and I added an extra package of pectin. This version turned out better, though still not quite as firm as I was hoping for. They did tase really delicious though!

Strawberry Jellies (Pate de Fraises)

2 1/2 pints strawberries

3 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon butter (I left this out to be vegan)

2 pouches of pectin (I used Certo)

Clean and trim the berries. Coarsely puree the berries in a food processor or food mill.

In a large saucepan, place the fruit pulp and bring to a rapid boil over high heat, stirring constantly with a spatula. Once a full, rolling boil is reached, start the cooking time, this will be from 6 to 9 minutes, always at a rapid boil and stirring constantly. Add the butter halfway through the cooking time.

When it's time, remove the saucepan from the heat and immediately add the pectin, stir vigorously for a few seconds to be sure that it is completely mixed into the jelly mixture.

Pour the hot fruit jelly into a brownie pan. Allow to set and cool completely, which will take at least 2 to 3 hours.

When the jelly is completely cold, run the blade of a knife around all the edges, and then cut into squares. Roll the squares one at a tine in sugar.

The uncut jellies will keep for up to 2 months wrapped in parchement paper. Once the jellies are cut and sugared, they should keep for a week in a closed container.

The jellies are something I want to keep working on as I think I can improve the recipe using fresh fruit, and maybe apple pectin. The first batch of jellies actually made delicious jam, which I served over pancakes.

Please check out Jill's Mango Pate de Fruits -- they turned out absolutely perfect!