How to Make Candied Violets

hi i'm julia from reynolda here with another video to inspire you to be creative and make art at home today in our pop-up studio we are going to be making art from nature in early spring in north carolina we start to see violets blooming and these flowers are actually edible and can be candied to preserve them to be used as decorations for desserts catherine reynolds and her daughter mary both enjoyed decorating with flowers that they found and they grew on the estate and it's possible that they might have used candied violets as decorations in early spring candying or sugaring violets is an easy process that only requires a few ingredients i'll show you what to look for when picking violets and how to candy them

the first thing you'll need will be fresh violets do not pick them from a yard that has been sprayed with chemicals you'll need wax paper and sugar i used granulated sugar but you can use powdered sugar for an even finer result you'll need an egg white and a whisk and it may be helpful to have a clean paint brush we'll start by gathering violets they might be purplish like this or light lavender whitish they have heart-shaped leaves like this do not pick the kind of african violets with fuzzy leaves that people grow inside only pick while it's growing in the yard if you know that an area with violets hasn't been sprayed with any chemicals then pick a handful of blossoms plus the stem to help hold it and several leaves we'll candy the leaves too though you might prefer not to eat them start by washing your violets just rinsing them in water both the flowers and the leaves and then set them on a paper towel to dry completely make sure you have a clean fresh egg start by separating the egg white gently crack the egg on the side of a bowl and pull apart the two halves gently pour the yolk from one half of the egg to the other letting the white run out into your bowl discard the egg yolk and shell wash your hands whisk the egg white you can add a little water if you wish but i'm just whisking the egg white by itself we're going to candy the violets by coating them with egg white then sugar you can try dipping the flowers into the egg white or you can use a clean brush to brush the egg white onto the flower you want to cover the face and underside of the flower petals as well as the sepal which is the part between the petals and the stem i'm starting by dipping the flour in the egg white then shaking off as much of the extra egg white as i can then dipping it into the sugar coating both sides of the petals and the sepal when you sugar the violets you can place them on top of the sugar and then spoon sugar over and around them as well as an easier way to distribute the sugar you can use a toothpick or the end of a paint brush to separate the petals if they stick together place the flower onto wax paper to dry making sure the petals are fully open candy the leaves in the same way place the sugared violets in the fridge for about 24 hours and check to see if the egg white is dry you might need to turn them midway

through

to decorate with the flowers cut the stem off i'm placing them on a spice cake here but you can put them on other desserts you could even use them to dress up a simple bowl of ice cream you can store any additional candied violets and leaves in an air-tight container in the fridge for several weeks enjoy

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