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Dessert

Barberries for Tartlets

Candied barberries are barberries simmered with sugar and set on sticks, then cooked in syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Barberries for Tartlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and soften

  1. Remove barberries from the stalks, ensuring there are no stones.

  2. Place the barberries in a stone jar and set it on a hot hearth or in a saucepan of water.

  3. Simmer slowly until soft.

  4. Combine the fruit and sugar in a preserving pan and boil gently for 15 minutes.

Candy the fruit

  1. Prepare flat sticks, 3 inches long and ¼ inch wide.

  2. Tie the barberries onto the sticks, leaving an inch at one end.

  3. Simmer the sticks in syrup for two days, covering them with syrup when cold.

  4. On the third day, candy them like other candied fruit.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Barberries
Provide the tart fruit that becomes the candied product, holding their shape when softened.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws water out to form a syrup that preserves and candies it.

The step that matters

Keeping the sticks covered in syrup. If the fruit is exposed to air as it cools, the surface can dry and sugar can crystallise on it. Keeping the barberries submerged in syrup keeps them moist, glossy and evenly candied.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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