Carrot & Cardamon Pate De Fruit Recipe
by Nicola Lando
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15 minutes prep time
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45 minutes cook time
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Intermediate
A 'pâte de fruit' is a clear French style jellied fruit, set with pectin, and coated in sugar. Their luxury lies in the intense flavour of the key ingredient - the fruit, or in this case carrot - reduced with sugar, into a thick-set preserve. Supermarket, or bland corner shop carrots, are not ideal for this pâte de fruit recipe - it's one to save for a glut of sweet, 'carroty' carrots, from the garden or a farmer's market.
This recipe was inspired by the blackcurrant and licorice pâte de fruit recipe in David Everitt-Matthias' fabulous book Dessert. Everitt-Matthias suggested other ideas for the pâte de fruit, including and carrot and cardamom - a flavour profile reminiscent of Indian desserts, and carrot halwa, which works beautifully in a petit four.
The recipe below (and photographed) makes a firm set. A far softer batch, made with a third of the quantity of pectin, was described by one taster as like eating "jellied baby ears... in a good way". Yup, we weren't sure how to interpret that either - but she happily tucked the box into her handbag to save for later, so I'd imagine it's a good thing. Adjust the quantity of yellow pectin, depending on which texture you'd prefer. With less pectin, the pâte de fruit will need to be refrigerated before slicing.
Ingredients Serves: 20
- 300g cooked peeled carrots (boiled or steamed, keep the cooking water)
- 2g ground cardamon
- 400g caster sugar
- 120ml light corn syrup
- 20g yellow pectin (for a softer set, use less)
- 12ml lemon juice
For the coating
- 75g caster sugar
- 75g granulated sugar
- 1/8 tsp citric acid (optional)
- Gold leaf to garnish (optional)
Method
- Line a 10cm x 16cm rectangular dish with oiled baking parchment or silicon paper (greaseproof paper will stick).
- Blend the cooked carrots in a food processor, adding a little of the cooking water at a time until the carrot forms a smooth purée. The water will boil off when the pâte de fruit cooks, so if you add a lot, cooking will just take a little longer.
- Transfer the carrot purée into a heavy bottomed sauce pan, stir in the cardamom, and bring to the boil. Whisk in 350g of the caster sugar and the corn syrup, and bring to the boil again. Mix together the remaining 50g sugar and pectin, and set aside.
- Keep stirring the mixture with a whisk. When the temperature reaches 102°C, whisk in the pectin/sugar mixture. Continue stirring until the mixture reaches 108°C. Stir in the lemon juice, remove from heat and pour into the lined dish.
About the author
Nicola Lando is the co-founder and CEO of Sous Chef, where she has spent more than a decade sourcing, tasting and selecting specialist ingredients, cookware and tableware from producers around the world.
She trained at Leiths and later completed a stage at a Michelin-starred London restaurant, experiences that helped shape Sous Chef’s original mission: to give home cooks access to the same exceptional ingredients used by professional chefs.
Today, Nicola leads much of Sous Chef’s product sourcing and ingredient selection, working directly with producers and travelling internationally to food fairs, farms, mills and manufacturers. She tastes thousands of products each year and has built deep expertise across storecupboard ingredients, olive oil, condiments, spices, preserved foods and specialist cooking ingredients.
She holds an olive oil sommelier certification from ESAO in Spain, Imperial Executive Education’s Certificate in Nutrition for Health: Evidence-Based Tools and Strategies certificate; as well as studying Food Safety and Control at University of Greenwich.
Nicola also writes recipes and ingredient guides for Sous Chef, combining practical cooking experience with first-hand knowledge from producers, suppliers and specialist food makers. Her work focuses on helping cooks understand how to choose better ingredients, use them well, and get more flavour from their cooking.
