Frozen Candied Grape Leaf Cup?

Some time in the last 10 years I had a quite wonderful and inventive dessert at the Ventura Inn in CA.It was an edible bowl for ice cream- a candied grape leaf formed into a bowl by having been tucked into a bowl or cup shape and frozen.I tried making one once but it was awhile ago and i think i didn't realize that it required a very long cooking time to get the leaf edible. Has anyone tried it or have you any advice? Thanks so much.

LeBec Fin
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4 Comments

petitbleu
petitbleu April 15, 2013
I don't think I'd use bottled grape leaves, as they have a pickled taste that wouldn't mesh with ice cream very well. However, you could blanch the leaves--they seem very sturdy, and I'm guessing they would hold up well to blanching.
As for the candying of the leaf, I'm really at a loss as to how they did it. Perhaps they simmered the leaf in a simple syrup then let it dry out a bit before freezing it. This would probably be very easy to shape in a muffin tin, but I would lightly grease the muffin tin for insurance. Sounds like a sticky business.
 
BoulderGalinTokyo
BoulderGalinTokyo April 15, 2013
??
 
LeBec F.
LeBec F. April 15, 2013
bump
 
BoulderGalinTokyo
BoulderGalinTokyo March 27, 2013
I bought bottled grape leaves once, but I didn't try freezing them.

Lots of leaves are used in Japanese cooking in sushi and desserts.
Cherry leaves are wrapped around mochi, but they usually aren't candied but salted, then used with the sweets. Lightly salted, not like preserved lemons. But I haven't seen them frozen.
 
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