The simple candy that I made was so perfectly crystalline it practically begged to be decorated. It needed something to be trapped inside it, something that would make it even better and would shine from the inside. And what better way to do this than to capture some real flowers together with their subtle taste – and make Flower candy.
Not surprisingly many flowers are edible – like daisies, roses, lavender, forget-me-nots, primroses, violets or elder. And there is also a variety of other beautiful and edible stuff that can be used as a decoration. For instance berries or agrumes like oranges and lemons. Therefore while I was at it, I tried out some other nice looking and smelling things.
Flower candy – Preparations
First, the flowers or other material is dried in order to get the desired look and remove water which could lead to problems. If the material is too moist the water could be the perfect medium for bacteria or fungi, so it is a good idea to remove it. Further, the water from the plant material can soften the candy and make it sticky and soft. Once you have dried, perfectly looking material, you simply insert it in the middle of the candy during pouring of the candy mass.
Making the flower candy
Additionally, I tried to decrease the amount of candy mass from my previous experiment, since that was way too much for my current experiments. I tried with 100 g of sugar, 40 g of water and 10 drops of lemon juice. Measuring of temperature was not so easy, or barely manageable, due to the lower amount of the mass. Cold water test proved to be much more useful and easier to perform. After the second cooking, not even this was necessary – 15 minutes of steady boiling proved to be enough.
After the mass reached the desired state I poured the candy and added the decorations. Sometimes some rearranging of material was needed, which was easily done with a clean toothpick. When the candy cooled down it was perfectly crystalline and transparent as seen from the pictures.
From all the tested material lavender and peppermint flowers were the best pick for candy decoration. They looked perfect, while other material got darker and somewhat lost its looks. And the taste was again more pronounced and more pleasant with the two, compared to the rest of the tested material.
It was really interesting how a small addition of flower material can so subtly and yet profoundly influence the taste. Peppermint is really my top pick, be sure to try it out.
Image credit: Amazing food
