Elderflower Jelly Recipe

To Wash your Elderflower:

1. Pick your elderflower heads from a shrub. Count the exact quantity that you need (*see Notes for size variation). Collect in a bag or bowl and take them home.
2. Directly place fresh flowers into a large bowl or into your sink and top up with fresh water. Pour in a dash of vinegar and mix it all. Leave your flowers for 2-3 minutes in the vinegar water to wash, so that insects fall off. You need to add more vinegar if you have countless lice on your flowers. The flowers cannot be stored, they have to be directly processed.
3. Take elderflower through fresh water to rinse off and then break off the green stem. The stem is bitter and needs to be discarded.

For the Infusion:

1. Place clean flowers into a large bowl with a lid.
2. Pour water over the flowers.
3. Zest clean orange and lemon and juice them both. Add zest and juice to elderflower in the bowl.
4. Submerge flowers and close the bowl with a lid. Keep the bowl in a dry, cool place for 1–2 days. The longer, the better it will infuse.

For the Jelly:

1. Keep a small plate in the freezer. This will be your plate to test if the jam is set later on.
2. Strain the infused flower water. Take it through a fine mesh strainer or a muslin cloth (cheesecloth). There should be no visible flower pieces left in the infusion.
3. Pour infused flower water into a jam pan. Add gelling sugar to that. If you are using sure jell, get standard (plain) sugar and add to that the sure jell. (see Notes for quantity details). You can also use just standard sugar, but the jelly won't set and will turn out like a honey instead.
4. Bring to a rolling boil and keep the pan over medium-high heat setting. Stir occasionally with a long handled wooden spoon.
5. Once it boils, reduce the heat to a medium-low setting and leave to cook. Cook down the jelly until it looks translucent and somewhat set. Cooking down will take about 30 minutes in total, from measuring to the first setting test, but this is not set in stone!
6. Test if the jelly is set by dropping some hot liquid jelly on the ice-cold plate. If it runs, it needs more cooking time. Cook down further and repeat the test until the jelly is not runny anymore on the ice-cold plate. Simultaneously, you can test the setting temperature with a candy thermometer. Jelly sets at 220 Fahrenheit/105 Celsius.
7. When the jelly is set, pour the jelly into clean sterilized jars (you can use a wide-mouthed jam funnel to help you pour it in). Clean up with a wettex sponge and hold the jar with a cloth because it's hot to close tight with a lid.
8. Turn the tightly closed jars upside down to create a vacuum. This helps the shelf-life. When the jelly has cooled down, turn them back up and store them on a shelf or use and enjoy it.