I LOVE poached fruit, especially during the cooler months of the year. Last week while I was out shopping at my local fruit market, I found some beautiful golden quinces and decided to bring them home to poach. I usually stick to poaching pears or stone fruit, but this time I thought I’d change things up.
In today’s recipe, I have teamed the poached quinces with a deliciously dense and nutty buckwheat banana bread. The flavours work well together; earthy banana bread, sweet and smooth mascarpone, and spiced poached quinces, with a sprinkling of pistachios-so delish!
Last Monday it was Mike’s birthday and we invited all the family over to celebrate (happy birthday love!!). I had some of the banana bread left over from the weekend's shoot, so I decided to cut the slices into mini bite-sized squares, top them with a little mascarpone, quince, and a sprinkling of pistachios. They were a great little treat, perfect for the afternoon of entertaining.
If quinces are not in season my poached pear recipe is also a great alternative.
Let me know how you go with the recipe, and feel free to comment if you have any questions. Enjoy!
Ingredients
GF, RSF 
2 hrs 
8 - 10 Banana Bread
- 4 large ripe bananas, mashed
- 4 eggs
- ¼ cup honey
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp allspice
- ½ cup coconut oil
- 1 tsp gluten free baking powder
- 2 cups almond meal
- ¼ cup buckwheat flour
- Pinch of sea salt
Poached Quinces
- 5 quinces, peeled, cored and cut into eighths
- 8 cups water
- ¾ cup coconut sugar (you could also use honey or raw sugar)
- 1 tsp vanilla powder
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 5 cloves
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Vanilla Bean Mascarpone
- 250g mascarpone
- 4 tbs coconut sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla powder
- Pistachios for sprinkling
Method
Banana Bread
- Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees celcius.
- In a large mixing bowl combine mashed bananas, eggs, honey, coconut sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, allspice and coconut oil.
- Fold the baking powder, almond meal, buckwheat flour and sea salt into the mixture.
- Pour the batter into a paper lined loaf tin and place into the oven for 50 minutes.
- Test the loaf before removing from the oven; an inserted skewer should come out clean, if it doesn’t, leave it in the oven for a further 5-10 minutes.
- Once the loaf is cooked, remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Poached Quinces
- Pour 8 cups of water into a heavy based pot, add the cinnamon sticks, cinnamon, vanilla and coconut sugar (or alternative) and stir well.
- Add the quince slices into the pot of spiced water.
- Place the pot onto the stove on medium-high heat and bring to the boil.
- Simmer the quinces over low heat for 2-2.5 hours or until soft and bright in colour.
- Remove from the heat.
Vanilla Bean Mascarpone
- In a small bowl, combine the mascarpone, coconut sugar, vanilla powder and mix well. Set aside.
Serve the banana bread sliced with a generous dollop of mascarpone, some poached quince and a sprinkling of roughly chopped pistachios. YUM! You could also cut the slices into bite sized pieces. If quinces are not in season my poached pear recipe is also a great alternative.
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