That time of year again

Oh yes! We are back from holidays in Sicily and now it is one of my favourite times of the year. Elderflower time!

This year I am planning to make; Elderflower syrup, Elderflower jelly, Elder-gummis, and Elderflower champagne again...... fingers crossed that no one dies with the last one.

Today I had a couple of free hours, so rather than go for a jog, although after all those Italian pastries that may have been a good idea, I went to my secret spot of elderflowers hidden away from pollution and prying eyes and picked me a quick bag.

 They just smell divine and sweet as it is.

But to that I added some sugar, water, lemon juice and peel, and some citric acid to make about 4.5L of syrup. This will steep for a few days and then be strained and bottled. mmmm I can't wait. Also, I chose some of the prettier flower heads to dry to be used as tea later, in winter.

There are two recipes as follows for these two bottles.
2 x lemons (rind and juice)
990g of white sugar (I have tried brown before but it makes it look off)
20g Citric acid
30 heads of flowers (removing as many stems as you can be bothered)
2L of water

and

2.5L of water
1kg of Sugar
25g Citric acid
2 x lemons (rind and juice)
30-40 heads of flowers

Instructions:
Remove flowers from the stems, you will always have some stems in there but the more you remove the better as they are supposedly toxic. I just use my fingers to pluck them off.
Remove rind from lemon and juice and add to the flowers.
Dissolve sugar and acid in water and get to a boil
Then add the flowers/lemon mixture and continue to boil for at least a minute.
Then set aside to cool, I put it in my big jars but anything you can cover to stop it getting infected would be fine.
After a few days strain through some muslin or just a sieve (the latter will give a more cloudy mixture but still tastes great).
Then add to water, sparkling water or even more fun sparkling wine.

Enjoy!