Frédéric’s children’s quince jelly Linzer cookies
As Christmas approaches, I enjoy baking cookies with my children. One of our favourite recipes is quince jelly Linzer cookies. With intense aromas, this fruit offers a fine balance between high acidity that is not aggressive and a pleasant sweetness. This balance can be further refined by adding lemon juice when cooking the quinces. The jelly will be cooked in two stages: first boil, cooling, then a second boil to obtain a firm, compact jelly.
This way, the cookies will retain all their crunch!
The quinces come from the Montibeux estate. Along the estate wall, we planted a hedgerow that fulfils a genuine environmental mission. This project was carried out in collaboration with the Sempach Ornithological Station and Vitival, in order to select a variety of continental species that are relatively low-growing so as not to shade the vine foliage, and that have strong potential to attract insects and birds. Quince in particular is a perfect target for a number of larvae, notably those of Lepidoptera, more commonly known as butterflies. This approach is part of a catalogue of environmental efforts we have undertaken over recent decades, enabling beneficial predators to nest near the vineyard and thus naturally reduce the presence of vine pests such as colonies of red and yellow spider mites.