Pâte de Fruits are a classic French sweet.  They are little squares of highly concentrated fruit flavour with a smooth velvety texture. 

In this recipe I use passion fruit purée but once you have mastered the basic method then there is no end to the list of fruit flavours that you could try.

Simply replace the passion fruit purée with a fruit purée of your choice. When making these as a gift, you could choose a selection of flavours and colours that would look amazing all packaged up together. 

Citrus fruits work really well when it comes to serving these at the end of a meal.  Refreshing citrus flavours really help to cleanse the palate.  

It takes a wee bit of patience standing over the pot stirring constantly while the mixture comes up to the correct temperature but the outcome far outweighs this little bit of effort. 

Ingredients

500g passion fruit purée

450g caster sugar

25g liquid glucose

12g pectin

Extra caster sugar for dusting

Method

Rub the pectin through 50g of the caster sugar

Place this sugar and pectin in a large heavy based pot with the passion fruit purée

Bring to a boil

Add the remaining 400g of sugar and the liquid glucose

Bring to a rapid boil while stirring constantly

When the mixture reaches 110C on a sugar thermometer, take it off the heat

Pour into a tin lined with greaseproof paper

Allow it to cool in the fridge overnight

Cut into squares

Dust the squares with some caster sugar