Lilac Blossom Cordial

I can’t think of many things that smell better than sun warmed lilac blossom. But did you know that lilac tastes lovely too.

You can use the flowers to make a variety of delicious treats like lilac infused honey, lilac cakes and biscuits and of course lilac flavoured drinks.

While this syrup tastes incredible, the colour leaves a lot to be desired and so I help it along with a few blue berries. You can leave this ingredient out the the syrup will be a pale pinky brown.

You will need

2 cups of lilac blossom – green stems removed

2 cups caster sugar

1 table spoon lemon juice

4 blueberries

Method

Sort through the flowers and discard any that are damaged or browning
Remove the stems

Place in a large pan with the sugar, two cups of water and the blueberries
Bring to a gentle boil
The flowers will eventually lose their colour and the blueberries will burst, giving the syrup a pinky hue

Hold at this gentle boil for around five minutes
Turn off the heat and add rhe lemon juice
Let the syrup cool with the flowers still in the pan
Once completely cool, strain the flowers and berries from the syrup
Return the syrup to the pan and bring back to that gentle boil
Hold for one minute while you prepare your sterilised bottles. I pour boiling water over them
Let the syrup cool slightly before pouring on to the hot, clean bottles

This syrup can be used to make cocktails, soft drinks, as an ingredient for cakes or even drizzled over ice cream.