The author of the American magazine Atlas Obscura, Ann Eubank, admired an old Russian dessert – apple pastille.
She recalled that this treat was eaten with tea by aristocrats in the Russian Empire. To prepare it, you need to intensively beat the applesauce, egg whites, and sugar to saturate the mixture with a large amount of air.
“What happens next is quite understandable, but at the same time striking. This viscous mass turns into a shiny white cloud, soft and light, like a down pillow,” Eubank writes.
The resulting cream should be carefully distributed in a frying pan and baked at low temperatures for several hours. The result is a “soft marshmallow” or “caramel-colored meringue” with a pronounced apple flavor.
Writer and culinary expert Darra Goldstein noted that the pastille has been around for several hundred years. At first, it was a fruit puree sweetened with honey. According to her, the name of the dessert comes from the word “bed.” Probably because of the way it looked in the wooden drying trays. “The popularity of the pastille is explained by the love of Russian people for apples,” the author believes.
