The countryside was abloom with magnificent creamy flat-topped sprays last month. The sweetly scented flower of the Sambucus Nigra or Elderflower had arrived.
Their heady sweet scent permeated country lanes, roadsides, graveyards, parks and gardens and these sprays (umbels), containing hundreds of tiny flowers, have more uses than any other single species of blossom.
The delicate flavoured flowers with the aroma of Muscat grapes turn up in wines, cordials, sorbets, jams, deserts and sauces.
Elderflowers bloom for about three/four weeks and are not only valued for their culinary use, but also prized for their medicinal qualities. Elderflower extract is used in a wide variety of vitamins and tonics, in skin ointments and eye lotions. Elderflowers are also rich in Vitamin A, B and are used for the treatment of colds, flus and hayfever.
Dr Doolittle used a River Cottage recipe to make a delicious Elderflower cordial. He found that this recipe had a lot less sugar than all the other recipes.
Ingredients:
About 25 elderflower heads
Finely grated zest of 3 unwaxed lemons and 1 orange, plus their juice (about 150ml in total)
1kg sugar
1 head tsp citric acid (optional)
Inspect the elderflower heads carefully and remove any insects. Place the flower heads in a large bowl together with the orange and lemon zest.
Bring 1.5 litres water to the boil and pour over the elderflowers and citrus zest. Cover and leave overnight to infuse.
Strain the liquid through a scalded jelly bag or piece of muslin and pour into a saucepan. Add the sugar, the lemon and orange juice and the citric acid (if using).
Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then bring to a simmer and cook for a couple of minutes
Use a funnel to pour the hot syrup into sterilised bottles. Seal the bottles with swing-top lids, sterilised screw-tops or corks.
The first night we tried it with sparkling water, which was nice…. The second night we tried it with sparkling wine and it was gorgeous!
The Glen House garden is truely amazing, it never fails to inspire me. To share the love, I’m bringing a bottle of cordial to Angie’s for the Fiesta Friday party at the novice gardener.
Happy Friday!
Melissa xx
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The Glen House 
What a beautiful recipe! Thanks for this. I really wish I had elderflower bushes here in the city.
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Thanks Amanda, the cordial tastes incredible. Much better then the rubbish in the stores.
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Wow Melissa…this sounds lovely!
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It’s great Lori, with or without alcohol!
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I really need to plant elderberries! Used to have them in my old house. I think I see some here and there, but I’m too scared to stop and pick. What if a deer gets mad at me? 🙂
Sounds so refreshing!
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Ha ha ha, I haven’t been stopped by a deer just yet! We had some last friday night, and I think we’ll have some night… Our new friday party drink!
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This sounds like an amazing treat for the summer with sparkling water or sparkling wine 😉
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I’m sure it would make even the dodgiest fizzy wine taste great!!
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Sounds good! And what beautiful pictures! 🙂
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Thank you!
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Beautiful and delicious post!!
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Thanks Lisa xx
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Hi Melissa, We make a similar drink out of a flower (in Iran), but I am not sure if it is the same flower. I have to check into that. The drink looks wonderful.
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Ooh, interesting! I’ll look into it too xx
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mind those bottles…. and also if you turn down the sugar and add a little white wine vinegar, plus another 3.5 of water you get natural alcohol! http://cookingwithmrfitz.com/2014/07/13/mr-fitz-goes-pop/
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in four days its ready!!! http://cookingwithmrfitz.com/2014/06/27/elderflower-champagne/
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Ahhhh, I was sunning myself when you posted that one! Gosh, putting it in a screw top bottle goes against everything I’ve read…. But I’m not gonna take that risk!!!! Thanks for the advice, and next year I’ll give the champagne a go!
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I was the same! I didn’t like the idea of using screw tops yet it really does make a difference! The champagne is delicious! although you are never too sure on the potency…..And go for making the elderberry port when the berries come out!
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Ooooh I will!
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Hi Melissa. What a gorgeous summery recipe you have brought for us tonight! I will take a glass with sparkling wine please! 😀 Thanks so much for bringing this to FF tonight!
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You can have two glasses!
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We made some of this too 🙂 Just wish I’d got round to making more!
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So do I!
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Wish we had elderflower too. We recently discovered St. Germaine, the elderflower liqueur and love. I can imagine this would be wonderful with sparkling wine.
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It’s gorgeous! I’ve been googling cocktail recipes too!!
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that is lovely–so much fun!
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Isnt elderflower wonderful! I discovered last autumn that a tree in my yard was actually an elder tree 🙂 So I made cordial sometime ago too & ran out of it in about a month! Love your version 🙂
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Thanks so much!
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Getting thirsty now. What a wonderful idea (I especially like the combibation with white wine :D)
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That’s my favourite too!
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The flowers are so pretty that your elderflower cordial has to be delicious. I love to make recipes using flowers… 🙂
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My first time!
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Everything about this post is gorgeous! Lovely idea of adding elderflower syrup to sparkling wine. Just beautiful photos.
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Wow, those bushes are so pretty!
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Oh yum, I remember dipping elderflowers in pancake batter and shallow frying them ….ages and ages and ages ago
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Great idea
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