Turkish Quince Dessert Recipe!

1- First of all, put your all ingredients on the work table. Then, wash and cut the quinces in half, from top to bottom (also cut a thin slice at the bottom of each quince to make them become flat so they stand still in the pot). Scoop out the core and keep the seeds, save the seeds aside. Peel the skin of the quince halves and set them aside too. Rub the peeled quince halves with the lemon juice (or with the mixture of lemon juice and water); that will help quince not to go dark in color.

2- Then, spread the peels of quince as a layer in a heavy pan, wide enough to have 10 quince halves in one layer. Place the quince halves on top, in a way that the hollow side faces upwards. Then, place the seeds of quince, seeds of pomegranate and cloves evenly in the center of each quince halves.

3- Then, put a tablespoon of sugar over the each half of quince or spread the sugar evenly over the halves and then pour the water and pomegranate juice mixture to the pan and add a teaspoon of cinnamon or put cinnamon stick in the pan and close the lid. Then, bring the pan to a boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for about 40 minutes. Your quinces will start turning to a rosy, darkish pink color and the syrup will start to thicken and caramelized. Stir in the ground cinnamon, cover and cook on low heat for another 40 minutes or until the fruit is cooked (you may need a little more or less cooking time depending on the size of the quince - when you insert a knife into the quince, if it goes all the way down easily, it means it is cooked), turn the heat off. You will now get a richer dark rosy pink color and some caramelisation.

4- Then, leave the cooked quinces cool in the pan. The syrup will thicken even more and the color will go darker, thanks to the seeds acting as a natural thickener. Once your dessert cool, remove the cloves, seeds of quince and pomegranate and place the quince halves on a serving plate, with a dollop of clotted cream (or even better, Turkish cream/kaymak, the thick cream of the water buffalos) over the top. Also, you can put an half piece of walnut and couple of seeds of pomegranate over top and sprinkle some crushed walnuts over and serve (This delicious quince dessert keeps well in the refrigerator for a good 3 days).

Enjoy