Apricot and Star Anise Pate de Fruit

Does anyone remember Newberry Fruits which were fruit jellies but with a liquid centre? My nan always used to eat these especially at Christmas and she'd always get them as a present. I remember when I bit into one, the sweet liquid centre would just ooze out onto my tongue and the taste was almost like having the juice of the fruit flavour trickling down my throat.

Newberry Fruits are a type of Pate de Fruit which are simply fruit jellies made of fruit puree, sugar, any other flavourings and a gelling or setting agent to help them set enough to be able to cut, normally pectin which can be found naturally in fruits like apples.

I wanted to try these jellies as an addition to my chocolates and thought of using apricot and star anise as a combination. After boiling the fruit puree with the star anise and a jar of apple sauce, I poured it in to a square pan and left it to set, although it didn't seem to set very firm. So I heated it up again and added some gelatine and left it to set again. This made it a bit firmer to handle and so I cut the pate de fruit initially into strips and then into squares.



After leaving them to dry out for a couple of hours, I then dipped them in granulated sugar






And this is how they turned out...



The apricot and star anise went really well together, however, they were too sweet for my taste. Next time I might try to modify the sweetness by adding some salt to the fruit puree.