Violet Jelly-Kitchen Magic

I don't make violet jelly every year.  It's an on-again, off-again project for me.

But I've been asked to speak at a large gathering and bring 'pretty' foods.  Violet jelly certainly qualifies.

It's a straight forward and easy recipe.  I gather the violets over a week or so and store them in my freezer in a ziplock until I;m ready to make jelly.  Decoct the violets in boiling water, add sugar and lemon juice and 'Presto-Chango', the color changes from violet blue to lavender pink.

Well, that's the theory anyway.

The lemon juice should alter the pH so that the anthocyanins (the color that's in things like violets and red cabbage) should change.  If you keep the pH fairly neutral, you'll keep the blue-violet color.  Go more to the acid side of the scale and you get a lavender, tip the scale to the alkaline side and you flatten the anthocyanins and get a yellow-ish green color.

I wanted a least a few jars to stay the dark violet-blue, so I opted not to add lemon juice.

Here's what I got:

No blue at all.  That's when I realized that both my water and sugar are mildly acidic.

(sigh)  No blue for me.

My friend Holly lives in an area where the water is very alkaline.  Her jelly turned yellow.  Tasted delicious  but still yellow.

But I have to admit, they are still beautiful.

Here's the recipe.  The intensity of the color of the jelly depends on how many violets you start with.  Although the recipe called for 2 cups (which have resulted in a pink color), I amped it up to almost 4 cups of flowers.

Here's the recipe:

Pour 2 cups boiling water over 2 cups of violet flowers (I used almost 4 cups of flowers).  Allow to sit overnight.  Add 1/4 cup lemon juice (strain this well if you want clarity) and 4 cups of sugar.  Bring to a boil. You can add a number of things for pectin (if you don't add pectin, you'll end up with violet syrup):  crabapples, powdered pectin and liquid pectin.  I've used all three but I wanted this jelly clear, so I opted for  one package of liquid pectin.  Boil for an additional two minutes.  Skim, pour into jars, seal and process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

Easy-Peasey.

Shrinking Violet? Hardly.

After yesterday' violet sugar recipe, people wrote asking me for the recipes of other things that I had mentioned. So here they are. Some are my mother's original recipes, but some I've modernized...

Violet Jelly
2 cups fresh violets
2 cups boiling water
Juice of one lemon
1 pack pectin OR 3 oz bottle of Certo (Certo makes a clearer, prettier jelly, but it’s more expensive.)
4 cups sugar
Place the violets blossoms in a glass jar and cover them with the boiling water. Put a lid on the jar, and set aside for anywhere between 2-24 hours, depending on your schedule. The water will turn to an aqua blue. Strain and discard the spent flowers. Add the lemon juice and the mix will change to a pretty pink. (After you do this a time or two, you can sort of judge how much lemon juice to add to get a color that ‘suits’ you.) Stir in pectin, and bring to a boil. Add sugar, bring to a boil again, and boil vigorously for one minute. Skim if necessary. Pour into sterile jars and seal. Makes approximately 2 1/2 cups jelly.

Violet Syrup
4 cups Violets
2 cups Boiling water
6 cups Sugar
1 Lemon, juiced
2 cups Water
Place violet flowers in a mason jar and pour boiling water over them. Let sit 24 hours. Strain liquid into a bowl (not aluminum!) squeezing out all the goodness from the flowers.
Place sugar, lemon juice and water in a saucepan and boil into a very thick syrup, near the candy stage. Add violet water and bring to a rolling boil. Boil 10 minutes or until thickened. Pour into sterile bottles.
Allow to cool, then seal and refrigerate. Serve with club soda or as pancake topping, or brush on baked goods.

Blue Violet Herbal Syrup Recipe for respiratory ailments
1 ¼ oz of dried Blue Violet Leaf (Viola odorata)
1 ¼ quarts of distilled water
3 quarts of honey (roughly)

Place the Blue Violet Leaf in a stainless steel or glass pan and cover with 1 ¼ quarts of water. Let it sit overnight. In the morning place the pan on the stove and simmer for 15 minutes, then strain. Measure strained liquid. Take that measurement and add 3 times the amount of honey to the liquid. Heat gently until the liquid and honey incorporate, then pour into sterilized jars and cap. Label and store in a cool place. This has a shelf life of 1 year.

Once a jar is opened for use refrigerate it.

Candied Violets (Or Lilacs or Rose Petals or Rosemary or Lavender…)

There are a couple of ways to do this. If your concerned about salmonella from eggs, you can use one of those meringue powders that they sell. We eat them, use them to decorate cakes and candies and whatever else I can think of.

Recipe #1
1 c sugar + extra ( I use caster sugar, also known as Bakers sugar)
1/2 c water
Fresh violet blossoms
Combine 1 c of sugar plus the water in a saucepan and boil until syrup spins a thread.
Cool to room temperature.
Using tweezers, dip blossoms into syrup and shake off excess syrup.
Dip into granulated sugar.
Place on wax paper and dry thoroughly before using.

Recipe #2
Preheat oven to 150 degrees. You are not cooking the flowers, only drying the sugar coating.
Lightly beat an egg white until just foamy. You don’t want peaks. Dip each flower into the egg white to coat. You can use tweezers . Dip into caster sugar. Place on wax paper atop a wire cooling rack. Place in your extremely low heated oven with the door slightly open Once they dry in the oven, store in an airtight container. Placed in jars in layers separated by waxed paper, they’ll keep for several months.

Recipe #3 (This is the most tedious, but produces the best results…)
1 large egg white
1/3 cup water
superfine (caster) sugar
violets on the stem
Lightly beat together the egg white and water
Put the sugar into a bowl. Working with 1 violet at a time, dip the violet into the egg white mixture, then sprinkle sugar over all the flower, even between the petals. It‘s important that you get the whole surface covered, since sugar is what’s preserving the flower. I‘ve used tweezers, paintbrushes and scissors for all of this and they all get gummed up quickly, requiring a rinse. Lay flower on waxed paper to dry. Allow violets to completely dry at room temperature for several days before storing in airtight containers.

All Things Violet...

Down in a green and shady bed
A modest violet grew;
Its stalk was bent, it hung its head,
As if to hide from view.

And yet it was a lovely flower,
Its colors bright and fair!
It might have graced a rosy bower,
Instead of hiding there.

Yet there it was content to bloom,
In modest tints arrayed;
And there diffused its sweet perfume,
Within the silent shade.

Then let me to the valley go,
This pretty flower to see,
That I may also learn to grow
In sweet humility.
---Jane Taylor.


I thought I better get out for a good walk before the next storm hits here. It’s a gloomy day, with damp gusts of wind pushing the low clouds my head. But my somber mood lifted quickly when I spotted several Viola sp. peeking through last fall’s duff.

If there is any plant that sings of spring to me, it’s the sweet little violet. There is not another herb that reminds me of my childhood as much as those demure blooms. As a toddler, my mother made candy and spun a lovely violet sugar from them. On special occasions, she also perfumed me with violet cologne. Nowadays, my mother suffers from dementia and with her illness comes a raging sweet tooth. So the tables are turned. I make the violet candy, she sneaks them out of the jar and I pretend not to notice.

Violets are a cooling herbs with bitter qualities. The plant contains methyl-salicylic acid and violutoside, falconoid, violaxathin and derivatives, anthocyanins and coumarins, as well as mucilage, tannins and triterpene saponins. There are many species of Viola in the US and the genus includes pansies, violas and violets. All are edible and interchangeable however, excessive intake of V. oderata can cause nausea and individuals that are sensitive to saponins may develop diarrhea with long term use. Modern herbalists have used violets as a mild pain reliever, for respiratory problems such as asthma, bronchitis and congestion, different types of cancer, eczema and a host of other ailments which require anti-inflammatory actions. Because it’s been used successfully for detoxifying the lymph system, it may function to help modulate the immune system as well.

The young leaves are delicious added raw to salads, and are another of nature’s vitamin ’powerhouses’. A bit added to balms and salves, helps with dry, itchy skin. I use them in a syrup for sore throats. They can be added to vinegars, and violet jelly is a sublime experience. The flowers also have high levels Vitamin C and have a delicate sweet flavor.

Whether you decide to make violet candy, jelly or sugar, the recipes are about the easist to come out of the kitchen and require few ingredients

Here is a very simple recipe from my childhood.

Violet Sugar
Sugar infused with the delicate aroma of violets has a special place in my kitchen. Teas, frostings, baked goods. I love them all.

1/2 C Viola sp flowers, washed and allowed to dry.
1 C white sugar

Layer ½ inch of sugar into a jar. Place a single layer of violets on top. Repeat till gone. Let sit for two weeks. Use just about anywhere you’d use regular sugar.