Normally quinces are harvested in October, however, for some strange reason all the local stores here in Germany offer them in abundance in January and February. I did ask last October whether any were available, but I was informed that I would have to wait a little. For that reason I decided to publish one more winter recipe before we finally jump to fresh and vibrant spring recipes. If anyone knows why stores offer this fruit just now, please let me know. Regardless, I decided to make a traditional tarte tatin. This means that a) this is an upside down cake, so the dough is on the top when it is baked. And it also means that b) the fruit gets to soak up all of that lovely caramel. I hope you understand now why I wanted to make a quince tarte this way.
Pastafrola or pasta frola is a tart from Uruguay, which is similar to Linzer Torte. It is based on a pie crust, which is then filled with quince paste. A simple tart on the one hand, yet also unusual as it uses quinces for the filling. I often wonder why there are so few recipes out there with quince? At least here in Germany it is really hard to find. Quince is a very common fruit in Uruguay. Dulce de membrillo or quince paste is basically dense jam, which comes in squares and can be cut in pieces. However, in Germany you may find quince jam, but even that is super hard to find. So for that reason you will either need to buy quince paste on Amazon or you will need to make quince paste yourself. Funnily enough, quinces are sold in grocery stores in Germany, so you may have a chance.