Elderflower Cordial
Elderflower Cordial
Depending on where you live the elderflower season runs from late May to early July. You can find these everywhere, frequenting hedgerows, waste ground and woodland fringes.
It’s a wild, multi-stemmed plant that has creamy white flowers with a distinctly musky and sweet scent. Bigger than shrubs and smaller than trees!
The culinary uses are many and varied, and in my experience, always delicious!
Elderflower cordial is probably the best known and so easy to make yourself at home.
Once you have the cordial made, you can add it to so many delicious recipes or just add to your drinks for that extra flavour!
Ingredients
- 15 heads of elderflower
- 500g caster sugar
- 2 large tablespoons of quality honey
- 2 unwaxed lemons
Method
- Wash the elderflower well
- Place the sugar and honey into a saucepan with 1 litre of water.
- Gently bring to the boil, until all the sugar has dissolved
- Remove from the heat.
- Finely grate in the lemon zest and add the elderflower upside down, making sure the flowers are completely submerged
- Squeeze in the juice from one of the lemons, then slice the other and add it to the pan
- leave to infuse for 24 hours
- When you’re ready to strain your cordial, line a fine sieve with muslin over a large bowl (if you don’t have muslin, you can use a good quality kitchen towel) and pour through the cordial.
- Store in sterilised bottles or jars and drink diluted with water, soda or champagne or one of my faves is elderflower with gin and tonic!
Delicious!!
