How to Make Candied Flowers

When we were at a friend’s house last month, one of my friend’s daughters entertained my son with a coloring/activity book. On one of the pages the child was supposed to identify what did not belong of four pictures: a rose, an apple, a daffodil, and a pansy. My son pointed to the daffodil and said it didn’t belong because it wasn’t edible. The little girl corrected my son and told him that the apple didn’t belong. But my son stood his ground and said, “Apples and their flowers are edible. Daffodils are poisonous; it doesn’t belong”.

Yes, my son is that kid. The one that feeds his friends flowers. Below is a list of edible flowers that your children may be served in my backyard.

Edible Flowers:

rose petals
pansies
hollyhocks
snapdragons
impatients
honeysuckle

I try to have as much edible landscaping as possible. Here is a more thorough list of edible flowers and a list of nonedible poisonous flowers in case you want to incorporate more safe flowers in your landscaping and remove dangerous flowers from your yard.

How to Make Candied Flowers

I create a syrup to dip my flowers in, rather than using the old-fashioned method of brushing the flowers with egg white. While I let my kids eat flowers, I do not let them eat raw egg because of the risk of samonella.

Since we eat our flowers, I do not use chemicals on my flower gardens. Any flowers that you use in your kitchen should come from a chemical free source.

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How to Make Candied Flowers

Course Dessert

Prep Time 3 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours

Author Alea

Ingredients

• ▢ 50 - 100 edible flowers
• ▢ 1/4 cup water
• ▢ 1/2 cup sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon rose water optional (How to Make Rose Water)
• ▢ 2 -4 tablespoons superfine or caster sugar How to Make Superfine or Caster Sugar

Instructions

• Rinse flowers in a gentle spray of water. Set on a towel to dry.
• Place water and sugar in a small pan. Cook over a medium heat until it begins to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until all of the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
• Dip flowers into sugar syrup using a stem or tweezers if the flower doesn't have a stem. If you do not want any droplets on your flowers, you can brush the syrup on with a small paint brush.
• Set flower on wax paper and sprinkle with fine sugar. Leave the flowers on the wax paper to dry for 2 hours.

Notes

Yield: 50 - 100 candied flowers or petals

Once dry, the candied flowers can be used to decorate cookies and cakes:

I used some of the candied flowers to decorate Gluten-Free Shrewsbury Cakes.

This post is linked to the Hearth and Soul Hop ,  Tasty Tuesday and Feed Me Tweet Me Follow Me Home.