As many of you know we live in rural Devon SW UK, though the tea boy has a business in The Great Metrollops, our colloquial reference for London. Three hours plus each way, we have no intention of ever returning there to live. We go our separate ways, do the worky work thing, he drinks, I drive. We kick it there and back in a day, about once a week but only if needs must. We seemingly drove through all four seasons of weather in one day, last week. Ha! Oxymoron, Ill leave it in.
Spring is pretty but the weather still threatening and this is why I was, so obviously, bombed by a volley hale stones the size golf balls yesterday. I momentarily spied a glimpse of purple as I lugged the shopping into the house, though I was a tad busy being bashed by hail which somewhat deterred my impending glee. Pitiful sleet and snow showers overnight, bravo rebellious ‘host of golden daffodils’ you must be made from rubber. They bounced back in the sudden, variant morning sun.
Indeed, not aubrietia, but the prepossessing delight of the first violets this year. Sweet, old-fashioned, glorious, little darlings bring such simple pleasure. Devon being synonymous with the tiny wee perfumed power flowers. There they were, sitting pretty, snuggled between the riot of primroses. Soon all our hedgerows will look like slick city florists windows pretending to be the countryside, particularly wonderful when shot with early morning dew reflecting a subtle, fresh sparkle. No, the hedgerows not the florists, do keep up?
How to harvest this captivating élan? Not forgetting our desire for simplicity.
For the chocolates
To 3 tablespoons of cream (I used double), add a teeny tiny drop of red and blue natural food colouring, 1 teaspoon of violet essence for me, store-bought essence and syrups are widely available, if using home-made I will be visiting!
Mix the above and the add 3oz of icing sugar (85g) doff it on to the top of the fragrant primped mauve cream. Consider adding all 3oz from a great height, therefore covering your face and best jumper in a cloud of fine powdered sugar, it’s murder once combined with mascara and sets rock hard like royal icing notwithstanding causes utter havoc with the lanolin in your woolies? If there is sufficient fun in your life, add the icing sugar gently and with caution, which may be your preference?
Once your composure returns, mix and combine to a paste and if you were clever enough not to clean the fine dust from the work surface use this upon which to knead said paste. Roll into a cylinder, wrap in plastic food wrap, then pop it into the fridge to cool and firm, which is usually 30-40 minutes. Your fair interpretation is ok. No way I’m I including the words fondant, sausage and smelling of violets, behave.
Make shapes, no Madam not ‘like on the dance floor’! Traditional violet creams are flat based ovals coated in dark bitter chocolate, dress with a single crystallized violet.
Their less than uniform presentation proves that they are made by your own fair hand?
Violet Ice Cream
For an ice cream version I used half clotted cream, to icing sugar, (good mascarpone works similarly) add a decent dessert spoon of violet liqueur if you have some (and yes, mine is still from the same miniature from the Christmas hamper from hell), use flavoring syrup and colour at your discretion, but do add a whisper of salt to counteract the super sweetness. Scoop into balls (stop it). Since it is incredibly sweet I added teeny amount of fennel juice for a little background flavour, (finely chopped and simply squeezed through muslin) and opted to serve with bitter 85% chocolate which works well to balance.
Freeze, directly in scoops or similar placed onto a metal non-stick baking sheet if you have one, otherwise wing it with what you have. It doesn’t need an ice cream machine and sets well.
Once frozen it’s ready to serve, I simply placed the shapes into chocolate shells and dressed some with shavings and dressed the others with the prim little edible flowers and tiny frons of fennel. The naive chocolate flowers are from the remainder of the melted chocolate, see link here for more info
….. and that concludes our nature walk for today.
x
ice cream magazine 
What beautiful violets and corresponding dessert! I’d love a violet cream right now – I’m such a sucker for chocolates! Gorgeous photography, too. You really have a talent for pulling the reader in.
That looks insanely gorgeous!
Wow, this looks and sounds absolutely amazing!!
Beautiful!!!
What a stunning combination and one of my ABSOLUTE favourites – so beautiful too.
Gorgeous!
YUM! This is being saved so that I can make the chocolates later. Thanks for sharing.
A beautiful and inspiring post!
I am sorry to say I am drooling. These look absolutely fabulous and if I knew where you lived I’d be knocking on your door, inviting myself for ice-cream , chocolate and tea. Your photographs are wonderful too.
After moving to a modern bungalow a few years ago I brought with me some of the violets from my old garden hedgerow. I am pleased to say the little darlings have bloomed. I am in Devon as well, aren’t we lucky? Love your blog. Celia. X
This is brilliant. I love Devon, go there as often as possible and have a well known passion for violent creams. (Hubby once misheard and it stuck!) but due to a sad twist of fate, the family are off without me tomorrow. I shall make these as my ‘missing Devon’ treat.
I really enjoyed reading your post, and the dessert looks yum.
It looks amazing!!! Great and inspiring ideas!!!
What a beautiful colour! Perfect for Easter or for a ladies high tea. Love the photos too 🙂
A stunning post that uplifts my mood as I am still awaiting the blooming flowers of spring as we are having snow here tonight! Your chocolates are pure perfection, somehow you make something that requires so much talent look very easy and simple. I look forward to reading your posts because of your whimsical and witty style of writing 🙂
Uber gorgeous. And funny, a killer combo!
I really needed this beautiful post to remind me that spring will come eventually. Thank you for reminding me!
Your photos are absolutely gorgeous! They actually inspired me to go out and inspect the violets in my California garden. Yours look to be a little larger and lighter in color than ours. Guess I just need an extra drop or two of food coloring over here. 😉
Beautiful and witty. A winning combination… LOVE this post! 🙂
Mouthwatering
So beautiful I’m lost for words! What a combination x
Dang! You have all the fun!
Being west country born and bred I was amused to hear most Americans pronounce Devon as Deevon. I am of course generalizing.
Lovely, just lovely!
Absolutely gorgeous!
Wow amazing, so beautiful to look at I am sure it tastes heavenly. I am drooling. I really wish I could have some. Perfect for summers Xx
Hi, I’ve nominated you for a Liebster Award! Check out my blog http://beautyandthebutcher.wordpress.com/2014/04/04/b-is-for-belated-and-better-late-than-never/ to see the details and congratulations!
Superbig double arms around hug and even huger’err thank you XXXX
Gorgeous! Loving the shapes on the dance floor bit! A very lovely and funny post 🙂 x
Beautiful . Never seen a violet icecream.
that looks absolutely beautiful!
This is so beautiful!
Lovely way to incorporate the thrill of blossoms in Spring. I don’t happen to have violet liqueur in my pantry, but it may be worth making some, for little just-in-cases, such as this. 😉
Gorgeous post! I wish I was more delicate with my desserts. It’s an art!
Your blog is so beautiful! I’ll definitely be following!!
Hello, you liked one of my posts so I popped over here and found your delightful blog! I’m so glad I did look – I nearly didn’t because as the title was off topic from mine I thought perhaps it was a spam one. But hooray – a wonderfully written inspiring blog of deliciousness. Thank you for liking my post.
I’ve never made my own ice cream – this inspires me to try, soon, hopefully.
Thank you for sharing this – absolutely beautiful!
My goodness! I have always loved violet creams and this looks even better! Yum 🙂
What a gorgeous cake!
Oops, I meant cream. I’ll have to try this out!
This looks incredible 🙂 My mouth is watering!
Inspirinng story there. What occurred after? Take care!
Both lovely and delicious looking! Very inspiring.
So beautiful!
Lovely as a painting! I want to eat a cup of it right now, but am in frozen NYC–no violets!
It looks so nice! Thank you for sharing.
such a lovely, beautiful share! loved it!
just the photo made me click ….so pretty!