Crystallised Rose Petals

It is early summer, the roses are blooming and it is time to make Crystallised Rose Petals! I love using edible flowers in my cooking and roses are one of my favourites as they smell wonderful and come in some many fantastic colours – ruby red, crimson, shell pink, soft yellow, pure white…. There is something very romantic and decadent about strewing rose petals over your home-made cake or dessert!

These sugary petals are really easy to make providing you have access to flowers that you know have not been treated with any chemicals. If you have roses in your garden, or have a kind friend or neighbour who does, you are all set! Don’t use roses that are sold as cut flowers as they probably will have been chemically treated.

You can crystallise any kind of edible flower. It has the effect of both preserving the petals – if you don’t do this, they wilt very quickly – and also making them taste sweet and sugary!

It is very easy to make Crystallised Rose petals, in fact it is a great activity to do with children. However, if you are planning on using them to decorate a cake or pudding, you do need to make them the day before to allow them time to dry.

Equipment:

Pastry brush, cake rack

Crystallised flowers — Crystallised Rose Petals

Crystallised Rose Petals

Author: Tastebotanical
Prep Time: 10
Total Time: 10 minutes
Category: Baking ingredients
Cuisine: English

Print Recipe

Description

Sugary Crystallised Rose Petals look beautiful as a decoration on cakes and puddings and add a delicious rose flavour.

Ingredients

Scale

Petals from 3–4 roses
1 egg white
Caster sugar

Instructions

Wash the rose petals and dry gently using kitchen paper.
Paint each petal with egg white and then dip it into the caster sugar.
Place on the cake rack to dry and harden. This will take about 24 hours.
Use to decorate cakes or puddings.

Notes

Make sure that you use rose petals that have not been treated with any chemicals. The best place is from your garden as you will know what has been used on the roses. Don’t use shop-bought roses unless they are specifically designated as being for culinary use.

The flavour will be better if you use strongly scented roses.

Keywords: crystallised rose petals

Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice Cream

This Rhubarb Ice Cream is made from rhubarb curd flavoured with rosewater. It is a really quick and easy ice-cream which manages to taste both familiar and exotic and its soft pink colour looks wonderful! Rhubarb and rose go very well together and each enhances the flavour of the other. The sharpness of the rhubarb, the sweet floweriness of the rose plus soft billowing cream is a winning combination. Don’t overdo the rose flavouring as you want it to balance and not over-power the taste of the rhubarb. The ice-cream should make you think of an English summer garden – with a whisper of rose-water giving a hint of exotic Arabian Nights rather than a full-on Fry’s Turkish Delight flashback!

What you need to know about this recipe

You can make this recipe with home-made Rhubarb Curd or with the shop-bought variety. If you have never made Rhubarb Curd, it is very easy and a lot cheaper than buying ready-made!
Although you can make this recipe without an ice cream maker, it is a lot easier if you have one. You can buy a basic ice cream maker fairly cheaply.
It is best to start this recipe the day before you eat it. This will mean that once you have made the basic custard, it will have time to chill down before you put it in the ice cream maker the next day.
You can also make this ice cream well in advance if that is more convenient. I generally make double the quantity and keep it in the freezer where it will last for up to three months.
As with most home-made ice creams, it helps to remove the container from the freezer about ten minutes before serving as this will make it easier to scoop.

Other home-made ice cream recipes

I am a great home-made ice cream enthusiast. I make it in the summer, of course, but am happy to eat it in winter too! There are some brilliant, shop-bought ice creams available but it is so easy to make your own. I like to experiment with flavours and some of my other ice cream recipes are listed below.

Apple Ice Cream with Salted Caramel – basically a toffee apple in the form of ice cream
Blackberry and Bay Ice Cream – foraged blackberries with an underlying note of warm, spicy bay
Roasted Cherry Ice Cream – juicy fresh cherries with a bit of booze make this a rich and indulgent dessert (you can leave out the alcohol if you really want to)
Coffee Ice Cream – quick and easy, store-cupboard recipe using instant coffee which has an amazingly rich coffee flavour
Cranberry Ice Cream – if you have any left-over cranberry sauce, you know what to do with it
Elderflower Ice-cream – easy recipe using elderflower cordial – delicious floral taste of summer!
Lavender Ice-cream – another gorgeous floral ice cream (bit of a theme here at tastebotanical…) made with fresh or dried culinary lavender
Lemon Curd Ice Cream – this tangy, three-ingredient recipe is probably the simplest ice cream recipe you will find
Rose Ice-cream – made with culinary rosewater, this ice cream is the essence of an English summer garden
Strawberry Balsamic Ice-cream – strawberry ice cream given a lift with a dash of balsamic vinegar to bring out the sweetness
Thyme ice-cream with honey and mascarpone – thyme, honey and mascarpone…. in an ice cream – what’s not to like?

Other rhubarb recipes

I love rhubarb and have lots of other rhubarb recipes. It makes a great jam, compote or fruit curd. It is also great in a crumble. Rhubarb is also good in many home-baking recipes such as Rhubarb Upside-down Cake, Rhubarb Crumble Cake, Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding, Rhubarb Victoria Sandwich Cake and Rhubarb Roulade. It also makes a good basis for cold desserts such as Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice Cream or Rhubarb Fool. You can also use it to make Rhubarb Cordial and a pretty good Rhubarb Gin liqueur!

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Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice Cream recipe