As you know, pastille is an original Russian delicacy, the first information about which dates back to the XIV century. It is believed that the inhabitants of Kolomna invented it, because this delicacy, made here, has been very popular throughout Russia for a long time. Pastille is not only a very tasty and healthy dessert, obtained from natural fruits and berries, it is also a dietary product and is recommended for baby food. Today we offer to learn how to make a pastille from plums. However, one should not forget that in the absence of this fruit, one can take almost any other as a basis: apricot, apple, peach, pear, etc.
Plum candy - recipe
First you need to decide on the ingredients and utensils. We will need:
- plums - their quantity directly depends on how much finished pastille you want to receive;
- a pot or cauldron with a thick bottom for cooking fruits;
- plywood or wooden planks for drying pastille.
If plums do not seem sweet enough to you, then you can use sugar. However, it should be remembered that if you add too much sugar, then the pastille will dry out worse. If you want to give an original taste to the product, add walnuts, peanuts or hazelnuts to it.
Some housewives dry the pastille in the oven, in which case a baking sheet and baking paper are required.
So, everything you need is cooked, and your homeworkers are already waiting - they won’t wait when the pastille from plum is ready. It's time to move on to the cooking process.
To begin with, thoroughly wash our fruits and cut them into small pieces so that they boil faster. Then we shift the sliced plum mass into a cauldron or pan with a thick bottom. Add a glass of water, cover tightly and wait for boiling, after which we cook the mass over low heat. Moreover, the contents of the cauldron should not be mixed until the peel bursts and the fruit finally softens.
After this, stirring constantly, continue to cook until the liquid has completely evaporated. When all the water has boiled, turn off the heat and allow the plum mass to cool slightly. Then we pass it through a colander and, if planned, add pre-ground nuts.
We spread the resulting mashed potatoes in a wide aluminum dish and boil well, do not forget to stir constantly. We cool the plum mass and put it on a plywood sheet greased with vegetable oil. Evenly distribute the mashed potatoes on the surface. The thickness of the layer should be 1-1.5 centimeters. Our plum jam is almost ready!
We expose our future delicacy to dry in the sun. In the apartment for these purposes, you can use the windowsill or balcony on the sunny side. In a private house, the pastille can be dried directly on the street or on the roof, after covering it with gauze so that the fabric does not touch the surface.
If there are fine, sunny days, then after a day the pastille can already be turned to the other side and left to dry for a couple more days. It is important to dry the pastille well, as otherwise it may become moldy during storage.
After making sure that our delicacy is well dried, carefully remove it from the board and turn it into a tube. Our plum jam is ready! Enjoy your meal!