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3:03 pm
Expert
Sat 10-Oct-09
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Im going to have a go at making some Candied Haw berries, it is better to use fruit that is just ripe. The candying process can take days, or even several months. You put small whole fruits or chopped larger fruits into sugar syrup, and gradually day by day increase the strength of the sugar syrup. The sugar removes the water from the cells in the fruit. Because sugar attracts water, and then the water that leaves the cells gets replaced by the sugar.
About 250ml of water and about 300ml of sugar to make the syrup and add the berries that have been blanched for around 30 seconds to help split the skins then place in the jar and top up with sugar until your happy with them im am just playing around to see what happens, the Chinese I think they put them on sticks. 
They are now in a jar soaking.
3:24 pm
Improver
New members
Sun 21-Aug-11
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This is a very late reply, but I am new and was just checking through the jam posts as I have a question, when I saw your post!
The Chinese candied haws on sticks are DIVINE!! I often go to Beijing, and always eat them. Chinese haws are really big, sometimes like a smallish golf ball, and they have a strong scented taste, quite characteristic. I am trying to grow them in my garden in Tokyo. They look like tiny apples, and have big pips.
Sometimes they are just candied. They are rather like mini toffee apples. Sometimes they are stuffed with sweet red bean paste and/or glutinous rice.
Mmmm, can't wait till I go again!
How did yours turn out? How did you eat them?
Sansho
9:29 pm
MMM we have a surfeit of haws here this year: another way to use them is sublime!
9:48 pm
Improver
New members
Sun 21-Aug-11
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Shelley,
What other ways do you have? I have quite a lot of small haws and often think there must be something to do with them,
Sansho
9:54 am
Supreme Being
New members
Mon 21-Sep-09
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What a strange coincidence you should ask that today Sansho¦.yesterday I picked a whole load of haws. I usually make a jelly preserve of them, using my windfall apples. I cook both together, mashing both as they soften, then strain through a jelly bag overnight. I then add sugar & the juice of a lemon & boil till it sets, then pot up.
It is very good with cheese, game, pork or lamb & I like it on toast. I like the mixture os apples & haws as it is not too strong a taste but if you want to try a pure haw jelly try this recipe.
http://www.eatweeds.co.uk/hawthorn-jelly-recipe
As there are so many haws this year I think I will try to make this chutney.
http://wildfoodmushroomsfishing.blogspot.com/2010/.....yme.html
I also found this recipe for syrup. I suspect I will add brandy to it as it will keep much longer & I won't have to keep it refridgerated....it will also taste much nicer.....
http://www.ehow.com/how_4883826_make-hawthorne-ber.....syrup.html
By the way many sites suggest you check with your doctor before consuming hawthorne berry products if you have heart problems.
http://www.health-care-clinic.org/alternative-medi.....-berry.htm
Good luck with your preserving & let us know how they turn out¦.I will do the same 
"The beautiful is as useful as the useful...perhaps more so."
from Les Miserables
2:32 pm
Expert
New members
Sun 19-Sep-10
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somewhere i saw a wartime recipe for hedge currants , somewhere being the problem, i know it included haws , fuschia berries , elderberries and rowan ...dread to think what they were like but then again i might try it
4:05 pm
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
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Not feint-hearted are you Kay?
I'll try that again!
8:08 pm
somewhere on here I have deffo posted a recipe for Hawthorn ketchup: comes from Hugh fearnley's book on jams I can post it again if necessary!
8:41 pm
here it is
hi there
noticed your comments on haw jelly and have to agree with you; however, have you thought of making hawthorn ketchup? It is far simpler than the jelly to make and truly delicious " french friends of ours could not get enough of it last night!
recipe;
500G HAWS, 300ML VINEGAR (I USE CIDER), 170G SUGAR AND SALT/ PEPPER TO TASTE
CLEAN HAWS AND TAKE OFF STALKS ETC. PUT INTO A PAN WITH THE VINEGAR AND BOIL FOR 30MINS UNTIL BERRIES SOFT. SIEVE, SO AS TO REMOVE STONE AND SKINS. RETURN PULP TO THE PAN WITH THE SUGAR. ONCE SUGAR DISSOLVES BRING TO BOIL AND COOK FOR 5MINS. SEASON AND PUT INTO A STERILISED BOTTLE? WITH A VINEGAR PROOF LID. MAKES 300ML AND KEEPS FOR 12MONTHS
HAS A DELICIOUS, APPLEY, FRUITY TASTE " THX TO RIVER COTTAGE HANDBOOK 2
8:54 pm
Councillor
New members
Thu 7-Jan-10
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I was just looking at one of the sites Nadine posted, and it talked about getting the haws off the stalks. When we were picking gooseberries the woman who runs the PYO said the way to top and tail them if you freeze them is to let them just start to thaw and rattle them around in the colander--the tops and tails fall off, and then let them finish thawing as usual.
Sorry this is on the wrong thread and wrong time of year, feel free to move it!
blog: Devon Garden
6:13 am
Improver
New members
Sun 21-Aug-11
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I had no idea you could do so many things with them! Mine are still bright green as we are still in summer here in Tokyo, and I don't think I will have a huge amount, but I'm checking out some of those links.
In China they dry the haws. They are very big, so they are sliced with the peel on and dried. They end up looking like very small pink dried apples. Then they are used to brew a sourish tea. It's very refreshing. They are also used in traditional Chinese medicine.
In the supermarkets there, there are all sorts of candied haws. Some of them are candied whole, with or without the seeds, and sometimes spiced a little. And sometimes they are made into a kind of paste, which is then sliced. Sort of equivalent to quince marmalade, I suddenly realise.
I found this blog with a nice pic of candied haws. You often see sellers in Beijing hawking them from bicycles. It's the third picture down.
http://www.mollybee.org/china/chpics70.html
The leaf of the Chinese hawthorn looks the same as the European one, but it's much bigger.
Sansho
3:56 pm
wow they are big hawthorns!! what lovely pics of your time in China too
3:56 pm
wow they are big hawthorns!! what lovely pics of your time in China too
7:26 pm
Improver
New members
Sun 21-Aug-11
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Shelley, that's not my blog 🙁 I just found it while I was looking for pictures of Chinese haws. Yes, they are huge, almost the size of crabapples, but they are definitely haws. The seeds are the same and so is the leaf, although bigger.
Sansho
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