Saturday, April 28, 2012

Candied Violet Flowers


These candied violet flowers make beautiful accents to sweet treats. Place them on cakes, muffins or breads. Kids will love to eat them as is. 

To learn more about violet, you can see my recently updated monograph here. 

This post is part of the Wild Things Round Up featuring recipes with flowers.



Ingredients
fresh violets (or pansies) with stems attached 
egg white
sugar







Begin by beating the egg white with a wire whisk until it begins to froth. 


Place your sugar in another shallow bowl. A note about the sugar, it’s best to use really fine sugar. I used regular sugar that I ground in a mortar and pestle. You can also find fine sugar in specialty shops. Fine sugar is different than powdered sugar.  






Here comes the delicate part. Pick up a flower by its stem and dip it into the egg white. You can also use a clean paintbrush to brush the egg whites on to each petal. Make sure you coat all the petals well, front and back. 







Next place the violet in the bowl of sugar and coat all parts of the flower with the sugar. 
Place this on a plate or wax paper, snip the stem and repeat with all the flowers. Be sure to rearrange the flower so that it looks good, it will dry this way. (You can use a chopstick or fork to arrange the petals nicely.) 




Lastly, place these in an oven on the lowest setting until completely dry of if you live in a dry environment, simply leave them on the counter for the day. 



These will keep for awhile if stored in an airtight container, but it’s best to use them as soon as possible.