Recipe: Quince Braised in Honey and Wine

Adapted from Deborah Madison's Seasonal Fruit Desserts: From Orchard, Farm and Market.

Serves 4 to 6

    • 4 to 6 ripe, fragrant quince (about 2 pounds)
    • 2 cinnamon sticks
    • 1/2 cup honey
    • 1/2 cup dessert wine, such as Quady Essensia Orange Muscat or Navarro late-harvest Riesling
    • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Select a wide, shallow baking dish that will comfortably hold the quince in a single layer with some doubling up if need be. Rub the fuzz off each quince, rinse, then slice crosswise into rounds about 1/2 inch thick or even a little thicker, leaving the skins on.

Arrange the rounds of fruit in the baking dish. Tuck in the cinnamon sticks, drizzle over the honey, pour in the honey, then dot with the butter. Cover the dish with foil. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for 20 minutes more. Turn the slices over and slosh the juices around, then return the dish to the oven and bake until burnished and tender when pierced with a paring knife, another 15 to 30 minutes. In the end the juices will have cooked down to a dark syrup.

Serve warm or at room temperature, alone or with something creamy; spoon the syrup over the fruit.

To read Aglaia's review of Deborah Madison's Seasonal Fruit Desserts, click here.