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Carnation Flower Spanish Candy Wedges
Carnation Flower Spanish Candy Wedges is a traditional Elizabethan recipe for making a confection of baked apples, carnation petals, verjuice and sugar that is cut into wedges and was traditionally decorated with gold leaf. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Elizabethan version of: Carnation Flower Spanish Candy Wedges.
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
55 minutes
Total Time:
75 minutes
Additional Time:
(+cooling)
Makes:
12
Rating: 
Tags : Dessert RecipesBritish Recipes
Original Recipe
Carnation Flower Spanish Candy Wedges
(from A Book of Fruits and Flowers [London, 1653])
Take Violets, Cowslips, or any other kinde of Flowers, pick them, and temper them with the pap of two roasted Apples, and a drop or two of Verjuice, and a graine of Muske, then take halfe a pound of fine hard Sugar, boyle it to the height of Manus christi, then mix them together, and pour on a wet Pye plate, then cut it in Wedges before it be thorough cold, gild it, and so you may box it, and keep it all the year. It is a fine sort of Banquetting stuffe, and newly used, your Manus Christi must boyle a good while, and be kept with good stirring.
Modern Redaction
The best carnations for this recipe are clove-pinks (mini-carnations)
Dianthus caryophyllus graandin which both impart a wonderful red colour and a clove-like taste. But any red-tinged carnation can be used.
In Medieval and Elizabethan cookery
Manus Christi was a sugar confection and 'boyle it to the height of
Manus christi' is a reference to the cooking of that confection. Essentially the sugar needs to be boiled to the
Thread Stage of sugar cookery (110–113°C).
Ingredients:
100g
clove pink (carnation) flowers
2 dessert apples
1/2 tsp
verjuice (or a mix of 150ml white grape juice, 80ml white wine vinegar with a dash of lemon and lime juice will also do)
50mg musk or ambergris (if available)
225g sugar
Method:
Core the apples, place on a baking tray, add a little butter then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 160°C and bake for about 40 minutes, or until very soft. Remove he apples from the oven, remove the skins and beat the flesh until smooth. Remove the husks, stems and heels from the flowers then mix into the beaten apples.
Add the sugar to a pan and heat gently, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves. Continue heating (still stirring all the time) until the sugar reaches about 112°C (the thread stage). Immediately take the sugar off the heat and beat into the apple and flower mix. Turn this mixture into a buttered pie dish and spread out evenly.
Just before the mixture sets completely cut into wedges. Allow to cool then separate the wedges. Traditionally these would have been gilded before eating. Even without the gilding, they still make a very interesting dessert or sweet snack.
