Elderflower Confiture
Elderflower confiture is made from the edible flowers of elder tree (Sambucus nigra). It has a delicate flavor and a special taste and can be consumed as any other confiture: on bread, in Grießbrei (Semolina Pudding) or Milchreis (Rice Pudding) or as ingredient in cakes and creams.
Ingredients for ~400g of confiture:
- 70g Elderflowers (cleaned, with no green stalks), that’s about 20-25 big elderflowers
- 700g sugar
- 350ml water
- 1 organic lemon or 1-2 limes
- For confiture I calculate about 10% flowers to the sugar ratio. Sugar will be half of the quantity of water because we want to get a thick syrup and adding more water will just mean boiling it for longer.
- Clean the elderflowers, making sure there aren’t any insects. I don’t recommend washing them because the flavor will be reduced. The confiture will be boiled so there’s no risk for health.
- Remove all the flowers from the green stalks. It’s quite the work but it will worth it.
- Cut the lemon or limes in slices. You can put them on top of the elderflowers.
- Mix the water and the sugar and boil them until you get a thick syrup. You can check the consistency of the syrup by dropping a few drops on a plate and check if they keep their shape but are still liquid. The bottom round drops are too thick so in this case you may want to add some water.
- Add the slices of lemon/limes and the flowers and bring it to a boil.
- Check the consistency of the syrup, as described above, and when it’s done, turn off the heat. It should only take a few minutes.
- Pour the hot confiture in the sterilized glasses, close them and turn them upside down. Make sure to have a metallic plate/tray under the glasses to take away some of the thermal shock and prevent the breaking of the glasses.
- Turn them back up when they’ve cooled down and store them in a cold dry place.
- I got 6 jars a 50g each, one 100g jar and some extra for tasting.
- Thanks to the high sugar content, this confiture will basically last forever.
- Extra tips since making confiture is a little trickier (based on how the jars look):
- If the confiture got too thick, you can add some extra water, bring it to a boil and let it cool down before consuming.
- If the confiture is not thick enough and seems quite liquid in the jars, you’ll need to boil it again until it reaches the desired consistency.
I also make Elderflower Syrup for Lemonade in the same time. 