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Every year I patiently wait for elderflower season to come around. I watch daily to see when the flowers begin to appear. The reason why is because their delicate musky flavour transforms any dish into a floral dream.

The moment I saw the elderflowers where ready, I went straight out and picked two baskets full of the lacy flowers and quickly turned it into cordial’s and syrup’s. I experimented with some new flavours and even infused some gin.

Baking cakes with the cordials or syrups seems to be the thing I normally do each year, so I decided to try something different this time. But no doubt a few cakes will be made also. I have one here that’s really delicious.

The strong scent filled my house instantly, to the unamusement of my partner who really doesn’t enjoy the smell. To be fair they really do seem to smell incredibly strong, but once infused and made into cordial the flavour is more subtle.

I decided to use some of the cordial I made to make this elderflower jelly, but you can use store bought cordial if you prefer. I tried to hold back on the amount of sugar I use in my cordial, but found that the jelly needed a bit more once it was diluted with all the water, so I suggest using a recipe for cordial like this one here as it will ensure the sweetness is just right for this. I’ve included my cordial recipe at the bottom, but its more suited to be used to flavour icing for cakes etc.

Jelly seems to always take me back to my childhood, It makes me think about friends birthday parties or school dinners. So I thought it could do with a bit of a grown up twist to revive it from its retro reputation.

This would be amazing served with some stewed gooseberries or macerated strawberries for some added fruitiness.

I like jelly with either custard or ice cream, or simply just on is own, so I will leave that decision to you.

Lemon and elderflower are the main flavours in the jelly and I added some blossom honey and a sneaky measure of gin to enhance it. (the gin is optional) The blossom honey I used was slightly set so that effected the colour, but if you use runny honey the jelly will become more translucent and you could suspend flowers or fruit inside and turn it in to a show stopper.

I made two jellies, the other was in a beautifully shaped ornate antique mould. Unfortunately I was a bit to vigorous when I tried to remove it and the jelly broke.

Its a shame as I went to the trouble to suspend some elderflower blossoms at the top of that one. I had to pour an inch of jelly in and cool it down a little in the freezer, then place the flowers in and wait until it had started to set before I poured the rest of the liquid in. It was quite time consuming.

The one you see here had a few blossoms inside, but at the bottom, so I sprinkled some elderflower blossoms on top once it was out of the mould.

The lemon zest you can see inside, I candied before hand, but I didn’t find it really added any thing extra compared to the second one I tested with just normal finely grated lemon zest. So I decided not to include that task of candying peel here and opted for regular lemon zest for this recipe.

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To make the jelly

Makes two jellies or one really large one

• 300 ml elderflower cordial
• 7 gelatine leaves
• 800ml water
• 150g caster sugar
• 4 tbsp. blossom honey
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 50 ml gin or more to your taste (optional)
• lemon zest

To make it

Lightly grease the jelly moulds with some flavourless oil, such as vegetable oil.

Add the gelatine leaves in a bowl and cover with cold water and leave to bloom for a few minutes, mean while add half the cordial and water in the pan with the sugar, honey and lemon zest and bring to the boil.

Squeeze any liquid out of the gelatine leaves and add to the pan and stir until they have disappeared.

Add the rest of the liquid and the gin if using and mix, let cool then pour into moulds. I added some flowers into the jelly. If you do this make sure the liquid has cooled down before you pour it over them or they will turn brown.

Leave to set in the fridge over night.

Serve with custard or ice cream or as it is.

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Elderflower cordial

My cordial isn’t really sweet enough for jelly, but it works really well for making cakes and icing.

To make the cordial

Ingredients

• 1 cup elderflower blossoms
• 800ml water
• 1 lemon
• 3/4 cup sugar

Tools

• 2 small glass bottles
• sieve
• funnel
• saucepan

Directions

In a sauce pan add the elderflowers, lemon cut into slices and water and boil until the liquid has reduced by at least a quarter so you have about 3/4 of the liquid left (it can be reduced by half so don’t worry if you reduce it too much) about 15 minutes, this helps infuse the flavours before adding sugar.

Strain and remove the flowers and lemon and pour the liquid back into the pan.

Add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Pour through a funnel into sterilised bottles. let cool and keep in the fridge.