Elderflower Cordial or Stored Sunshine

The blossom has been particularly splendid this Spring and now the elder flowers are adorning the hedgerows.
The cream coloured blossom has a beguiling scent which can be captured in a cordial or added to gooseberries and sugar. Stew these gently together until the the berries pop and serve with custard or when cold, fold into whipped cream and chill in champagne flutes for a delicate dessert to be served with shortbread biscuits.

My daughter very kindly picked me the flowers for this batch of cordial.

There are about 20 flower heads here.

We snipped the flowers from the main stalks into a bowl and added 750g of sugar, 30g citric acid and 2 lemons thinly sliced.

Cover them with sugar, citric acid and sliced lemons.

 Then we poured over 650ml of boiling water and stirred until the sugar had dissolved.

Pour on the boiling water and stir.

We covered the bowl and stirred it each day for 3 days and then strained off the syrup into sterlised bottles. This quantity will give you about 1250ml.

      

Elder flowers and elder flower cordial.

Dilute the cordial to taste with still or sparkling water. It can be used to marinate strawberries in or as a flavouring for butter cream icing for cakes. This is stored sunshine!