How to Make Candied Violets
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar in enough water to absorb until it hardens when dropped into cold water.
Add the violets a few at a time into the syrup and keep them in until the sugar boils again.
Coat and dry
Stir the sugar around the edge of the pan until it becomes white and grainy.
Gently stir the flowers until the sugar leaves them.
Drain the flowers on a fine white cloth.
Set them on a sieve to dry in a slightly warm oven.
Turn them carefully and watch until they dry.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Loaf sugar
- Forms the syrup that hardens and coats the violets in a crisp, sweet layer.
- Large double violets
- The flowers being candied; the sugar coating preserves their shape and colour.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar to the hardening point. If the syrup is not boiled far enough, the sugar stays too soft and will not set into a crisp coating. If it is overcooked, it turns brittle and sugary rather than clinging to the flowers. Testing by dropping a little into cold water shows when it has reached the right concentration.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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