Wow Your New Years Guests With Delicious Edible Flowers + Cookie Recipe!

Did you know that there are more to our flowers than just good looks? You can eat them, too!

Edible flowers - both fresh and dried - can add fragrance, colour, and a little splash of pizazz to your cooking that typical cake toppers and sides can’t. If you’re looking for some quick tips on how you can use edible flowers, look no further! We have compiled a few tips for sourcing and cooking with edible flowers - and, included an easy recipe to start your cooking journey with!

Please Note - Not all flowers are edible. Some are poisonous, and proper identification is essential. Likewise, not all parts of a flower are edible, and some varietals should be avoided if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Sourcing Your Flowers

There are two ways you can go about sourcing your flowers; you can pick the flowers yourself (Forage), or you can buy from a seller, such as The Peel Thing. If you purchase your edible flowers, be sure to check if they have been grown organically or treated in some way. Likewise, if you opt to grow or pick your own, keep in mind you'll eventually be consuming. Don’t treat them with anything you wouldn’t eat!

Fresh Flowers

Using fresh flowers provides you with the most fragrant and tasty flowers, and require minimal effort. If you’re opting for fresh flowers for your food, keep the freshly cut flowers in water until you’re ready to use them. They can last in water anywhere from 1-5 days, and from here you can simply trim or pluck the petals from the stems as you need them.

Dried Flowers

Dried, or partially dried flowers are the most common way for cooks to use flowers. This process requires a bit of patience, however, and keep in mind that the flowers may lose their colour and shrink a little

To dry your flowers, arrange them in a single layer on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Leave them out in the sun for about a week, and take care to turn them over every other day.

If that sounds like too lengthy of a process, however, you can also dry them in the oven! You will need to lay the flowers out in the same fashion as before, and then place them in the oven at 90 Celsius for up to 2-3 hours. You will need to turn them half way through.

Your flowers are ready when you touch them and find there is no residual moisture. If you are saving them to eat for a later date, store them in an air-tight jar, or container.

Flowers That Can Be Eaten

You would be surprised how many flowers are perfectly fine for consumption! Our edible flower range by The Peel Thing uses a wide variety of colourful blooms, including -

• rose

• calendula

• cornflowers

• viola

• daisy

• chrysanthemum

• dahlia

• cosmos

• pincushion

Edible Flower Cookies!

This wonderful recipe contains many ingredients which you likely already have in your pantry - just don’t forget to grab your flowers, too!

Ingredients -

• 60 grams unsalted butter, softened

• 30 grams caster sugar

• 100 grams plain flour

• Edible flowers!

• 1 egg white

Instructions

Method -

• Preheat oven to 160 C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

• In a medium bowl stir together the butter and the sugar until well combined.

• Add the flour and egg white to the creamed butter mixture, and mix until a cookie dough consistency is formed. The dough should be moist but firm.

• Divide the dough into two halves, and shape into a disc. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and then chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

• When ready, place one disc on a floured surface and roll the dough out to ¼ inch thickness.

• Use a cookie cutter to cut out as many cookies as you can, then transfer cookies to the baking trays.

• Using a pastry brush, gently coat a thin layer of beaten egg white onto the centre of each cookie. Then, gently press a flower blossom lightly onto the surface. Sprinkle lightly with sugar.

• Place in oven, then bake for 15 minutes or until edges start to slightly golden in colour. When done, let cool for 5 minutes.

• Repeat with remaining half of dough.

And that’s it! Your edible flower cookies are ready to be served. Why not add some dried oranges to top up your cocktails or tea while enjoying your cookies too? Or better yet, gift them along with some flowers from our florist.

We hope you enjoy this guide and recipe.  Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions!

With love,

Lilypilly Flowers