Recipe for a sweet soft-set jelly infused with foraged elderflowers and vanilla. This Elderflower jelly recipe is a unique and delicate preserve ideal for desserts and sweet treats. Make the jelly in late spring and enjoy it through the rest of the year!
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In these parts, elderflowers bloom in early to mid-June and they’re a wild food that is relatively easy to spot and forage. This year they’re just now beginning to show so there’s ample opportunity for you to gather your own to make fragrant and delicious cordials, champagnes, desserts, and preserves. For those new to elderflowers, the flavour of these delicate flowers is sweet, intensely aromatic, and traditionally paired with fruit like gooseberries and strawberries.
Though I love these combinations, I often find that the fruit flavor takes center stage and I wanted to instead create a preserve that had elderflower at its heart. With the subtle aroma of vanilla bean, this recipe results in a jelly that is a perfect blend of sweetness and perfumed bouquet and is ideal for spreading on toast, cakes, pancakes, vanilla ice cream, or anything that takes your fancy. In fact, it’s so good that you’ll probably be tempted to just eat it from the jar!
Locate and Pick Elderflowers
This time of year on the Isle of Man there seem to be at least two small trees flowering with umbels of white flowers: Rowan and Elderflower. Rowan isn’t poisonous but it doesn’t have the flavor and aroma that Elderflowers have so have a look at the image below to make sure that you have the right one. If you’re wondering about where to look, Elder trees can often be found along the edges of forested areas, fields, and hedgerows, and there are varieties that grow in the UK, Europe, and parts of North America.
More Elderflower Recipes
- Elderflower Champagne Recipe
- Elderflower Soap Recipe
- Elderflower Cordial Recipe
Leave the flowers outside for an hour or two after picking so that any tiny insects that may have been hiding inside have a chance to escape. If the flowers were collected in a bag or basket then it’s also a good idea to take them out and spread them around on a table or large plate to encourage those little guys to find a new home. I’m sure that neither you nor they want bugs in your jelly!
Elderflower Jelly Recipe with Vanilla
Makes approx. three to four jars
- 10-12 Large Elderflower Umbels (approx. 135g of flowers once removed from the stalks)
- 1 Litre / 4 cups Boiling Water
- 1 Kg / 4 cups Jam Sugar*
- 1/4 cup Lemon Juice (juice of one large lemon)
- 1 Vanilla Bean Pod
- Sauce or Preserving pan
- Jelly bag or muslin or Jelly Strainer Stand with Bag
- Sterilized Jelly Jars with Lids
* Jam sugar can be found in many grocery stores in Britain and is plain white sugar combined with a bit of citric acid and pectin, a natural gelling agent. If you can’t find Jam Sugar for this recipe, you can use 4 cups of ordinary white sugar and 8g (approx. 1 tsp) of powdered Pectin.
1. Clean and pull the flowers
Pull all the tiny white elderflower blossoms off of the green stalks and place them in a large saucepan. Some people use a fork to pull the flowers off but I just use my fingers since I find it easier and a good way to spot any remaining bugs. You also want to make sure to discard the thicker green stalks but don’t worry too much about the tiny ones that attach to the flowers.
2. Infuse the Elderflowers
Pour one litre (4 cups) of boiling water over the flowers, cover the pan and then leave it to sit for a couple of hours. Once that time has passed, pour it through a jelly bag or muslin to separate the liquid from the flowers. While other jelly recipes will warn you against squeezing the bag, it’s perfectly okay to do it for this recipe. So go ahead and try to squeeze out every last drop of that delicious Elderflower infusion.
3. Infuse the Vanilla
Rinse the pan and then pour the Elderflower infusion back in. Now turn up the heat to medium and scrape the inner part of your vanilla bean into the liquid – throw the empty pod in for extra flavor. Put the lid back on the pot and simmer for five minutes before fishing the empty pod out. Have a look at your liquid to make sure there aren’t any bits of the pod floating inside but don’t strain the liquid since it would only remove all of those gorgeous little vanilla seeds.
4. Add the Lemon Juice and Sugar
Now add the lemon juice to the infusion and bring it to a boil. Adding lemon juice will intensify the color but more importantly, it will enable the jelly to gel. Without a bit of acid, Pectin won’t be able to work its magic and you’ll be boiling for ages without coming even close to the setting point. If you’re wary of the lemon flavor affecting the jelly, don’t worry since you can’t really taste it. Once the Elderflower-Vanilla-Lemon infusion comes to a boil, add the jam sugar and stir until it’s fully dissolved.
5. Bring the Jelly to its Setting Point
Keep the jelly mix at a rolling boil until it reaches the setting point. There are a couple of ways to determine this but the method I use is to place a small plate in the freezer for ten to fifteen minutes to get it really cold. Once I’ve boiled the mixture for about ten minutes I take the plate out and place a generous drop of jelly on the plate. Wait a minute until it’s cooled and then poke at it with your finger – if it’s gel-like and/or crinkles up you have setting point. If not, put the plate back in the freezer and test again after another five minutes. For this recipe, I boiled the jelly for twenty minutes before it was ready but the time will vary based on your stove, elevation, and other factors.
6. Pour the Jelly into Jars
Once you’ve established the setting point, take the pan off the hob and allow it to cool for a few minutes. This will allow a skin to form on the surface that can be easily pushed to the side, along with any foam, and then scooped out of the pan. After you’ve done that, pour the jelly into warm, sterilized jars and screw the lids on tight and water-bath can them. Water bathing ensures that no bacteria or mold that may still be in the jar survive and spoil your preserves.
7. Water Bath Can the Elderflower Jelly
Fill a tall pan with water and place a rack at the bottom if you have one**. Bring to a boil then lower your jars in so that they’re not touching and that there’s at least an inch of water above. Bring back to a rolling boil and leave the jars in the boiling water for ten minutes. Lift them out vertically (not tilted) with a jar lifter and set them on the counter to cool. The lids will seal as the chutney cools.It may take twelve or more hours for the seal to take. Label the jars when cool and store them in a dark cupboard. Refrigerate the jars once opened and try to use them within a year.
