Hard candies made from elderflower flowers

Preparation steps

• Elderberry blossoms should be picked on a dry, sunny day in a location that is not contaminated with smog or dust. An inflorescence is a group of flowers on the same flower stalk. Shake each inflorescence well from insects, do not wash.
• Soak one inflorescence in 1 dl of water and let it stand for 12 to 24 hours. The pot in which you soak the inflorescence should have a lid, so that the water does not evaporate when standing - you can cover the glass with a transparent foil.
• In a small pot with a thicker bottom, add sugar, pour water over the elderberry that you strained through a small strainer and bring to the boil. Stir gently with a spoon until the sugar dissolves, do not stir again later. You don't have to be afraid that your sugar will burn, but by vigorously mixing the mixture, it coats the walls of the pot and causes the sugar to crystallize later.
• As the sugar mixture heats up, carefully pluck the individual flowers from the flower twigs of the second inflorescence with your fingers.
• Cook the mixture on the same plate strength without stirring. The syrup must reach a temperature of 155 ° C, but if you do not have a thermometer, you must check the temperature every now and then after the first two to three minutes of cooking.
• Check the temperature: Dip the top of the teaspoon into the sugar syrup and drop the syrup into a glass bowl or glass filled with cold water. For a completely thin syrup the drops will immediately dissolve in water, later transparent threads will start to form in the glass - then the mixture is only half done. When the instilled mixture creates a ball or drop that falls to the bottom of the bowl / glass without deforming - the mixture is ready. At the same time, you will notice that the mixture is thick and hardens faster, so when the drops fall, brittle "glass" threads of sugar and out of the water are formed. Look closely at the added pictures, I tried to take as clear a picture as possible of the stages that the sugar syrup goes through, so that the candies would succeed perfectly from the first time!
• Remove the pot from the plate and wait until the bubbles stop forming.
• Stir in citric acid and elderflower flowers.
• Pour the mixture onto a silicone base or lightly oiled marble base or baking sheet. Allow the mixture to cool, all the way to a temperature suitable for modeling - when the mixture no longer sticks to your hands (check by carefully feeling the mixture).
• It is best to form a ball (so the mixture will retain heat longer) and tear off pieces from it with your hands, enough for one candy. Roll each piece between your palms into a smooth candy. Work very quickly because once the mixture hardens it can no longer be modeled.
• Mix powdered sugar, starch flour and if you have ascorbic acid * in the jar, add the candies, close the jar tightly and shake it so that the powdered sugar mixture coats the candies. The candies are stored in a jar or other container that can be tightly closed so that air does not enter it - due to sugar and the lack of artificial stabilizers, they absorb moisture from the air and melt over time.
• * Ascorbic acid - or vitamin C, can be purchased at pharmacies or drugstores. It is a white crystalline powder, odorless, sour in taste. Not necessary for this recipe, but if you have it on hand be sure to add. So with each candy you take in a smaller amount of vitamin C.
• ** The temperature is taken from other recipes that I studied in the research - it should be accurate, because it is repeated many times in various recipes. But I don't have such a thermometer, so I'm not able to check it. I recommend that you do one test regardless of the thermometer.
• Please handle the mixture carefully, do not touch the mixture with your fingers and hands while it is still in the pot - it is very hot! The mixture can only be touched with your fingers two to three minutes after it is poured on the substrate!