Candies from the Garden
Comments
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I had plans to make some wild berry gummies and use them as centres for chocolate but its a project I haven't manage to find time for. I made elderberry gummies but they disappeared pretty quickly.
There was a small home-based company a few hours north of me that was making wild berry chocolates, but she has gone out of business which is too bad cause her chocolates were wonderful.
Here is a recipe for candied violets (or any other edible flower petal).
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@LaurieLovesLearning Very interesting ideas and information. When clicking on the hyperlinked sugar plums, I was rather surprised at their description as this is not what I grew up with as sugar plums. This is more the type I remember...
I did find an interesting article about the "original" type of sugar plums. Don't think I'll be making any of them.
@torey The chocolates with the gummies inside sound wonderful. Would you happen to have a recipe for the gummies? I have made them with cream or chocolate centers (truffle style) but never gummies.
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Dragee, comfit, Jordan almonds. Yum.
It sounds complicated to make.
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I don`t have immediate plans, but I would love to eventually make candied ginger and also horehound candy. I have had horehound candy a few times. I would certainly not eat it by the handful, but a little bit now and then is nice. As for candied ginger, I can eat that by the handful.
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So this is a bit off-topic, but reading that made me think of it -- I had never eaten kale flowers before last Friday, but they are actually a bit sweet! They make an interesting juxtaposition with the bitterness of the kale leaves. I wonder if anything candy-like could be done with them?
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Oh yes -- I do love candied ginger!! And candied ginger with lemon is another good one.
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I make candied quince slices. I love them, grandchildren love them. I use the decorative quince fruit as they are more sour and have a good flavour and the candied ones taste nicely sweet and sour. I slice quince, cover with sugar1:1, keep for 24 hours or more. Heat to 80C. Not more, so that Vitamin C is not gone. Strain and dry. Or strain and keep in glasses. I store the strained syrup in separate glasses.
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Another idea: ground ivy leaves (glechoma hederacea only) in chocolate. Warm the chocolate, dip the leaves inside, place on baking paper to harden. Or place leaves on baking paper and then pincer them with liquid chocolate. It is a very interesting taste as ground ivy leaves have a very distinctive taste themselves.
they are used to decorate ice cream, cakes… or simply eaten as candies.
ADMIN EDIT: added latin name of ivy
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@jowitt.europe I don`t even have ivy in my garden, but reading this recipe makes me wish that I could make this. I had no idea that ground ivy was edible.
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@Kuri and Kona as you mentioned ivy, I just want to be sure that it is ground ivy - glechoma hederacea. Not to be mixed up with any other plant called ivy.
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There are also herbal gummies!
@jowitt.europe reminded me of a fun cake decoration. There is no plant material left with it.
You can melt chocolate on low heat & brush a thin layer on the underside of unsprayed, edible leaves (rose is good). Then you put it in the fridge to harden. Take the leaves out and very carefully peel the leaf off the chocolate as to not break the chocolate. You now have chocolate leaves!
These leaves can be frozen, but freezing chocolate may cause bloom (a white look) that can make chocolate look less appetizing.
It's not floral candies either, but also worth a mention...
There are cake decorating artists that will dry & press (safe & edible) flowers/petals/plant greens onto the top & side icing of their cakes or in the inner filling layer, and /or lay fresh flowers & plant material into & onto pie crusts, biscuits, cookies, etc. Some of these can be quite beautiful, but I'm not sure what the finished texture may be like. I've often wondered about that.
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One of the seeds I got to try this year are violas and I already have grown borage for the flowers.
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I've made candied ginger root. Haven't made it, but I love candied orange peel covered in dark chocolate! I'm planting violets to make syrup and perhaps jelly.
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@vickeym Here is the link for Rosalee de la Foret's elderberry gummies. If I remember correctly, I think I used water for part of the apple juice and I didn't add the licorice or the black pepper.
If you go to step 2 of the process, you can substitute any juice of your choice. Or herbal tea. I'd make it a very strong tea, like a nourishing herbal infusion. So maybe peppermint gummies? Maybe simmered rose hips and then pour the juice over rose petals to steep for rose gummies? I think you could come up with a lot of different combos for medicinal gummies and treat gummies. As I said, I had plans to try to make chocolates with the gummies but have never got around to it. But I'm pretty sure it would be very easy to dip the cold gummies in chocolate.
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@torey, all of your gummy suggestions sound so delicious!😋
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@Lisa K I have some borage growing, but no idea what to do with it. I bought a plant last year for companion planting purposes but did nothing with it. So then I saved the seeds, and planted in several places. I have at least two borage seedlings that have come up, so this is the year that I have to do something useful with it.
@jowitt.europe Thanks for the clarification about edible and inedible ivy.
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@LaurieLovesLearning I had forgotten about the chocolate leaves. I have actually done that many, many years ago. I decorated cakes back in my twenties. Long before the printed images on cakes was even possible.
@torey I have never made gummies but I see them in my future. Can't wait to do herbal gummies and being able to make some dipped in dark chocolate... WOW.
Might even make it easier to convince some of my amily and friends to give herbals a try.
I have borage seeds to plant this year. Great to have ideas on what to do with it once I get it growing. lol
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@torey thank you for sharing the gummy bear recipe. My grandchildren are crazy about gummy candies. We can make some out of healthy ingredients together.
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@Kuri and Kona the young fresh leaves taste like cucumber but I have seen it used more for its flowers. Besides candying them you can put them in ice cubes to decorate summer drinks. One caution, each flower usually produces four seeds and they will grow any where, I had one start to grow in a pipe & in between bricks ... it got so bad that my dad forbade me to grow it anymore. Now when I grow it I trim off the flowers as soon as they are fully open.
Also, I found the plant good for the compost or soil conditioners in clay because it has a lot of water.
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@Lisa K Oh, great, something else that is going to take over my garden. It`s already a battle between the mugwort, oregano, and the jerusalem artichokes, and now the borage wants to join in? 🤣
But seriously, thank you for the tips. I also found lots of ideas online for recipes in this article: https://practicalselfreliance.com/borage-uses/
Hopefully I can put it to good use soon!
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@Kuri and Kona you are very welcome, so glad I could help😁
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I have made candied grapefruit and orange peel. Very delicious.
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@MissPatricia Yum!
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@MissPatricia I have a ton of orange peel that I have saved but not done anything with. Maybe candied peels would be a good idea. In the past, I have used it as fertilizer, made marmalade out of it, and used it for zest.
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@torey where do they disappear to? (Is the answer the evidence locker?)😂🤣
These all look really tasty! What about candied marigold flowers? (Some of them are edible.)
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I found another company doing Wild Berry Chocolate Jellies.
Alaska Wild Berry Products.
Gives one ideas on centres that could be made. They have a box with cream centres, too, although some of those are exotic flavours. But some of you might live where these flavours are more common and easily obtainable.
@vickeym Are you familiar with this company? Its in Anchorage.
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@torey Yes, I am very aware of this place. A very dangerous place it is. 😁 They have a huge chocolate fountain in the main entrance. There are huge windowsa where you can stand and watch them making the candies. They also give samples, of course they have a limit on how many. So many kinds of candies, it was very hard to pick a favorite one.
They even carry dog biscuits dipped in carob, my dogs loved when we lived in Anchorage.
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