Blackcurrant fruit pastilles

Which colour do you go for?

Given a packet of sweets which is your favourite?

What are mine? Mine are the black ones and it seems I’m not alone. They always seem to disappear first. Red can be too sweet, yellow too tart, but blacks, well they are just perfect. Blackcurrants, being naturally tart berries, marry perfectly with the sugar making for the most delicious sweet.

The most delicious sweet and one that when made at home from fresh berries is truly on another level. They are just amazing! Small nuggets of fruity sweet heaven.

Trust me, these are something to try.

Thankfully making them is pretty simple too! The recipe asks for pectin which you can find in the baking aisle but I would like to try them using jam sugar (which has pectin added already) as it’s much easier to find. I’ll give it a go and report back…

Recipe

Makes 100 pastilles in a 6inch square tin

Adapted from Shaun Rankin and Great British Chefs

• Line a 6inch square tin with baking paper
• Place the blackcurrants, 210g caster sugar and the water in a pan over a  low heat. Heat gently, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar has dissolved push the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds and end with a smooth puree.
• Return this to a clean pan with the remaining 200g caster sugar, glucose, pectin and lemon juice and heat gently over a low heat, stirring occasionally. Once all the sugar has dissolved turn the heat up to medium/ high and boil until the mixture reaches 116°C. Remove from the heat and pour into the lined tin
• Allow the giant pastille to cool and set for at least 2 hours but preferably overnight in a cool area
• Lift the pastille out of the tin in its paper wrapper and carefully peel the paper off (I found that the edges were difficult and required a knife to separate the two but the bottom layer peeled off easily).
• Dust the top with a little granulated sugar and cut into squares. (I found it easiest to cut ten strips, rolling each in sugar as I went and then cutting these into ten cubes and rolling in more granulated sugar)
• Enjoy! These will keep for a good while but will require re-sugaring before sharing as it seems to dissolve into the pastille, especially if they are pressed together in a box.