Hedgerow fruit pastilles (gf/vg)
Homemade, sugar crusted, soft jelly sweets that made a yummy foraged treat. You can use any autumn fruit such as blackberries, elderberries, damsons, bilberries, hawthorn etc.Makes about 25 - 500g hedgerow fruit of your choice
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 300ml water
- Approx. 225g golden granulated sugar plus another 50g for coating
- Line a 20cm baking tin with baking parchment (screwing it up into a ball and then unfolding it makes it easier to fold into position).
- Put the fruit into a heavy based saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and cook until the fruit is soft and pulpy.
- Strain the fruit through a very fine sieve or muslin, catching the liquid in a measuring jug.
- The fruit pulp can go onto the compost heap now. Measure the volume of liquid you have as the ratio of liquid to sugar is important. For every 300ml of liquid you will need 225g of granulated sugar.
- Rinse the saucepan out and the put the fruit liquid and measured sugar in and heat gently, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.
- Now bring the liquid up to a boil and boil rapidly. Using a jam thermometer bring the fruit liquid up to 112 degrees C. Be careful to keep an eye on the temperature as the liquid can begin to catch and burn really quickly now.
- As soon as the liquid reaches 112 degrees C remove the pan from the heat and pour the liquid into the lined tin. Leave to cool.
- The set jelly will keep in the fridge for up to a month. Remove from the tin, cut into squares and sprinkle with the remaining granulated sugar.
