I just love it when I find an herbal book at a flea market, used book store or other spot, and it turns out to be a treasure. So it is with a recent find, The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices by Sarah Garland. This book is just full of useful recipes for using herbs and spices in cooking, cosmetics, soaps, herbal remedies, dyeing and much more. There are lovely botanical watercolors and photographs throughout with wonderful diagrams also. The history and traditions section and the monographs are very good also.
Lily and I decided to try this nice recipe for making Horehound toffee, from the book. We really like it and think you will also:)
Horehound Toffee
3 sprigs of horehound (ours has already been harvested and dried so we decided to use 2 tablespoons to make it nice and strong with the medicinal qualities so we can use our candy as cough helpers also)
2/3 cups soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons of molasses
the juice of 1/2 orange
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pour 1 1/4 cups boiling water over the horehound and leave to infuse for 30 minutes
Strain, pressing to extract the juice. Pour the liquid into a heavy pan and add the remaining ingredients.
Stir to dissolve, bring to a boil and boil fast until a drop hardens in cold water. Pour the liquid onto an oiled marble slab or baking sheet (we buttered ours)
the instructions then say to mark out squares with the tip of a sharp knife. When it is cool and brittle, break it and store in an airtight container. We didn’t have the best of luck scoring it, so we just cut it up rather randomly with scissors before it was brittle, then tossed powdered sugar over them:) YUM, good medicine that tastes good too!
Herbal and Honey hugs to all who visit Comfrey Cottages
9 comments:
Good recipe!!! Will try that too. And the book.......is now on my wishlist.
Love, Hanneke
what a healthy and delicious recipe.
So nice to see, grandma, Lily and Dylan al working with herbals :)
Have a nice and sunny day my friend!
XXXXXXXX
horehound is in our country(holland) a rare protected plant.
Hi Leslie,
How lovely that Lily has you to teach her all these wonderful things. She is very lucky. :)
Horehound is a lovely herb isn't it, I have grown it in the garden for the first time this year and it's already becoming a firm favourite.
Hugs to you xxx
You will really like the book Hanneke:) It is superb I think. big hugs and love to you xx
The sun did come out this afternoon Rita! We are expecting another cold spell this weekend, brrrrr Wish you were here with me! We could snuggle under blankets and enjoy some tea together:) love you xoxoxo
Anneke, so very delighted to have you visit! Can you grow horehound in your garden? Here in parts of the US, the desert regions I believe, horehound has become invasive. I have not found it in the wild near my home though. I live in the state of Illinois, which is in the center of the country. xxx
Hi Lucinda:) Little Lily has been my little apprentice with bees and herbs since she was about 3:) You should see the adorable little beekeeping suit she has! lol Horehound was one of the very first herbs I ever grew! I think mine is 7 years old now and very hardy to survive our winters and blazing summers! Such a good ole traditional herb for so very many things! In case you don't know this, it makes an exceptional deterrant for unwanted pests in the garden. Just spray the plants with a horehound infusion:) big hugs and love to you my friend xxxx
Thanks for the book recommendation! I went on Amazon and found it used for quite a bit less, even when including the shipping. I am still developing my herb garden and have not planted horehound yet, though I've grown it before and have made hard candy with it. My version was pretty bitter, but sometimes that's not such a bad thing when you have a kid that'll say they have a sore throat just so they can have a piece of candy....
Interesting recipe! I have made horehound hard candies to soothe seasonal coughs and would like to try this one too! I will also try to get the book from the library.
Glad you could find the book Ilene:) I think you will enjoy it! Too funny but true about the bitter and keeping them from faking a sore throat;-)
Hi Jayne, if your library doesn't have it, maybe if your state has interlibrary loan, you can get it that way?
thank you both for visiting xxx
I love how you are teaching your little ones! That is just so special, and what an interesting recipe you have shared too!
Take Care,
Ulrike
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