One of the first (and favorite) things I noticed in our home back when we were house hunting three years ago was the abundant lilac bushes it had in the back yard. I love this flower and its scent and look forward to lilac season every year.
Last year we decided to scale back our overgrown shrubbery, and sadly the lilac bushes were part of this project (Ultimately we adopted an “everything must go” mentality and ended up clearing out everything in our backyard to start from scratch). I did a massive pruning on our lilac bushes and after filling our home with vases full of amazingly scented blooms, I was still left with a table full of lilacs.
A friend suggested trying to make lilac jelly from them. It had never occurred to me to use lilacs in the kitchen! Though lavender influenced food is fairly common now, using lilacs was a huge “ah ha!” moment.
I ended up finding recipes for lilac champagne jelly, lilac simple syrup and lilac sugar. Each are fairly simple. Most of the work is upfront prepping the lilacs.
First start with lilacs that have either been grown at home or that you know are pesticide/ chemical free (most grocery store and flower market flowers have been treated and are inedible)
Pull each lilac bloom off its stem
Remove any remaining small leaves, twigs, and wilted blooms (these will make you recipes bitter)
Thoroughly wash the blooms - I rinsed three times
Lay flat to dry on clean, lint free towels and cookie sheets
From here you can split your bounty into the different recipe projects:
Lilac Sugar – The simplest gourmet sugar!
Layer white sugar and lilac blooms in a large canning jar (I love Weck and Le Parfait)
Let sit for at least seven days (the longer you let it sit, the richer the flavor)
Shake once a day to keep the flavors moving throughout and sugar from sticking
Remove the sugar and break apart. It will have clumped a bit as the moisture from the blooms seeped into the sugar. Place on cookies sheets in thin layers and let air dry for an additional day or two.
From here you can keep as sugar to use for baking (see final step below) or you can add to a sauce pan with equal parts water and sugar as one approach to lilac simple syrup.
For sugar:
Place air dried sugar in a food processor to break up any last moisture clumps and cut up the lilac blooms.
Be sure not to over process or you will end up with powdered sugar!
This sugar is best for baking (biscuits, cinnamon rolls, cakes or as a topper to sugar cookies and snickerdoodles).
Simple syrup
Boil down the lilac sugar with equal parts sugar and water.
Or
Take equal parts sugar and water into a pot and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Place a few handfuls of lilacs into a pitcher and pour in the simple syrup mixture. Steep until the desired lilac flavor is achieved (I left it in for a couple hours) then strain.
Add 1 tbsp of vodka or aquavit as a sort of edible antibacterial agent to keep the syrup longer
With either approach, the syrup liquid will take on a brownish color – similar to making tea. I like to add one drop of red and blue food coloring to give it a purple-ish lilac hue.
Pour into jars and use within a week or store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
This simple syrup is delicious in springtime cocktails, morning coffee or add to iced tea or lemonade.
Lilac Champagne Jelly
The most intricate, but rewarding recipe!
1 bottle of rosé champagne
6 cups of sugar
1 pouch of liquid pectin
1 drop each of blue and red food coloring
Fill a large canning jar with lilac blooms
Boil 4 cups (1 bottle) of blush champagne and pour over the blooms. Let sit over night to infuse.
Strain and place champagne back into pot and combine with 6 cups of sugar
Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat, stirring often. Stir in pectin. Boil for 1 minute, continue to stir constantly.
Remove from the heat; skim off foam if necessary. Carefully ladle hot mixture into hot half-pint jars, leaving 1/4-in. headspace. Wipe rims. Center lids on jars; screw on bands until fingertip tight.
Place the jars into canner large stock pot with simmering water, ensuring that they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil; process for 10 minutes. Remove jars and cool.
Serve with scones, on simple white bread toast with butter, on bagels with cream cheese, french toast or even as filling in cake layers
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