The culinary uses are many and varied, and in my experience, never less than delicious. Elderflower cordial is probably the best known, since it is made commercially and is available year-round. It’s also easy to make yourself at home – check out the recipe by Georgina Hayden below.
I’d also recommend elderflower fritters. Try making this super easy to deep-fry the heads for a gorgeous dessert, served with lemon and a little sugar. Sorbet is another winner. Simply make this and add four tablespoons of elderflower cordial for a refreshing twist. Elderflower and gooseberries make a wonderful pairing of flavours and this is an excellent choice to layer on a piece of toast or hand out as edible gifts.
My own particular favourite is elderflower champagne. For a very modest outlay – a fermenting bin and pressure barrel – plus a mere tenner’s worth of ingredients, you can make 40 pints of very palatable beer-strength sparkling booze in only a week.
HARVESTING ELDERFLOWER
Whatever you decide to make, the process of gathering the flower heads is the same. Choose a dry sunny day, sever the stalks carefully with scissors and keep the flowers upright so that pollen, the source of much of that unique flavour and fragrance, will not be lost. Place carefully in a bag and have a good pick through at home to remove any bugs rather than washing them. Trim as much stalk off as you can before use.
Purple-leaved garden cultivars of elder exist that bear pink-tinged flowers (Jamie’s garden has three such plants). My project this year is to try to make rosé versions of the above!
HOMEMADE ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL
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