THE PROVENCAL DESSERTS OF CHRISTMAS

LES DESSERTS DE NOEL DE PROVENCE

www.cgourmand.fr

TREATS. Glorious XMAS TREATS.

Among the 13 Christmas desserts of Provence (12 for the Apostles and one for Jesus Christ) that are laid out on the table on Christmas day, a tradition dating only from the 1920's, there are candied fruit. (Others are figs, grapes, oranges, Calissons- marzipan based candy- Nougat, dates and a few more).
I do love Calissons from Aix-en-Povence and Nougat from Montelimar but I simply adore candied fruit, especially those made in Uzès in the Gard region of France, not far from our family home and sold in a very pretty shop called La Cure Gourmande. 
The process of crystalizing fruit is quite labor intensive as one has to boil the fruit in syrup several times over a period of up to 15 days, adding more sugar each day and keeping the fruit in the concentrated sugary liquid for all that time. The result however, is well worth the trouble. 

The trick now is to try my hand at this or better, find the right maker here in New York...

Or I could try Histoires Sucrées or Cgourmand online.

au revoir.