Candied Violets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the violets
Select the desired quantity of perfect sweet violets and spread them on an inverted sieve to air dry slightly, but not crisp.
Make the sugar coating
Make a syrup by boiling ½ pound of granulated sugar with ½ pint of water until it spins a thread.
Dip each violet by the stem into the hot syrup and place them back on the oiled sieve.
Let the violets sit for several hours.
If they look dry, dip them again.
Finish with fondant and harden
Melt ½ cup of fondant, add 2 drops of essence of violet, and enough water to achieve a thin, grayish color.
Dip each violet into the fondant one at a time.
Dust with sifted crystallized sugar.
Place on oiled paper to harden.
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
- Perfect sweet violets
- Provide the flower that is coated and candied, making up the finished piece.
- Granulated sugar
- Forms a hard, glassy sugar coating that preserves the violet and keeps it crisp.
- Fondant
- Adds a smooth, thin outer layer that sets firm and gives the violet a glossy finish.
The step that matters
Boiling the syrup to thread stage. Syrup that is undercooked stays sticky and will not harden, while overcooked syrup turns brittle and can crack. Reaching the thread stage gives a coating that dries firm but still holds the flower.
“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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