Nowadays, when everyone’s favorite sweets are often made from substandard or non-natural products, hand-made treats are becoming increasingly popular. Products that are both healthy and tasty include apple pastille.
It is believed that the most delicious treat is obtained from sweet and sour varieties of apples. For its preparation, you need to choose mature, non-wormy, rotten and uninfected fruits.
How to cook pastille at home? For its preparation, the core and any signs of spoilage (if they still exist) are removed from carefully washed apples. Water is poured into a cast-iron pot or a pan with a thick bottom so that it covers the bottom by 1 cm. During cooking, moisture will be released from the apples, which will not allow the apple mass to burn. Apple marshmallow is never cooked in an enameled bowl, since it constantly burns in it. Prepared apples are placed in a pan and put it on medium heat. Apples are cooked under a closed lid until they are completely softened. Hard apples or not quite ripe are boiled for up to 2 hours. Ripe and soft fruits are cooked for 40-60 minutes. When cooking apples do not interfere.
Fully cooked fruits are greatly reduced in volume, so when laying in a pan you can pour them “with a slide”. In the future they will boil out.
Fully cooled apples are filtered. The juice obtained from them can be drunk, diluting it with water. The remaining apple mass is wiped through a sieve with small cells. The resulting applesauce is the basis for pastille.
Apple marshmallows require some skill during cooking. A cling film, baking paper or oilcloth is fixed on a wide board, on which apple puree is evenly distributed. Layer thickness should not exceed 7 mm. An ideal layer is 4-5 mm. Too thin a layer, although it increases the area of the marshmallow, will subsequently lead to its rupture.
On paper, apple pastille dries much faster than on film. A board with mashed potatoes is located in the fresh air under the sun. Ideal for drying, pastilles are considered sunny, hot days, but even in cloudy, windy weather it dries out quite quickly. The main condition for drying is the absence of rain. On sunny days, the pastille dries in 1 day, and in cloudy weather - in 3-4 days. At night, the pastille needs to be cleaned under shelter or in the house so that it does not become damp. The finished marshmallows should be dry and elastic after pressing with a finger. The edges of the pastilles dry faster than the middle. After the layer of apple pastilles is sufficiently dry, it is separated from the paper or film and turned over, allowing the back side to dry for 2-4 hours.
Unlike flat pastila, dried on a film or oilcloth, dried on a paper pastille has a slightly wrinkled and wrinkled surface.
Apple marshmallow is stored at room temperature. For long-term storage, it is advisable to wrap it in food paper. For ease of use, the pastille is cut into small pieces of any shape, which are wrapped in paper individually.
Apple candy with sugar is also prepared from sour apples. To prepare 1 kg of fruit, you need to take 2-3 tbsp. l water, 100 g of sugar. The washed apples are peeled and cut into slices. Pour a little water into a pan with a thick bottom and add apple slices. Under the lid, they are boiled until soft.
The apples are filtered, draining the juice from them. The cooled mass with sugar is rubbed through a sieve. Baking paper is spread on a baking sheet, on which a layer of mashed potatoes is evenly distributed. The pastille is dried in an open oven at 100 ° C. The finished marshmallow has a pleasant reddish tint and stretches a little. The pastille rolled into a tube is cut into small pieces.