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My Black Lace elderflower bush is just starting to flower. Now all I need is my gooseberries to ripen and I’ll have all I need for a Gooseberry and Elderflower crumble – that should make under gardener happy – he’s a sucker for a traditional pudding dish.
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These flowers are so delicate and pretty. I love making elderflower cordial. Topveg.com have just added an elderflower cordial recipe to their website. If you haven’t tried it, have a go at making it because it’s delicious.
That’s for sure! :)
Beautiful picture – I hadn’t seen this variety before. We made elderflower cordial for the first time last year and are just on the last bottle now – great timing! However, I’m with the UG on the merits of crumble as well!
I’d love to make Elderflower cordial – the problem is I only have around 7-8 flower heads (clusters of tiny flowers). Is that enough? Ideally I’d like to leave some on the plant because they are so beautiful.
Yum yum – Have you got a recipe? I would love to try this out – we have a Worcester berry bush covered in fruit this year (This May rain is a godsend!) and thought this might be a good way of using them!
Cheers, Ben
The recipe I used last Summer can be found at:
http://annesfood.blogspot.com/2005/08/dads-elderflower-cordial.html
You could mix one or two of your flowers with some wild ones which are just coming into flower near us now.
I looked over Anne’s recipe and was wondering if you can drink the cordial as soon as it cools. I thought cordial was something that took a long time to make.
I make cordial every year, and also elderberry cordial too :-) Both so nice, the elderflower is lovelly and refresging cold in summer and then the elderberry is lovely warm in the winter.
Will you post a recipe for the crumble as it sounds lovely, I’d love to give it a go.
As well as Elderflower cordial, there is also what we used to call elderflower ‘champagne’ which does take a while to make as you have to leave it to mature for a few weeks before drinking, but the cordial you can use straight away.
Elderflower ‘Champagne’ only takes about a fortnight to mature. Recipe as follows
2 Gallons Water
21/2 Lbs Sugar
8 – 12 elderflower head
3 lemons
4tblsp white vinegar
Boil water and stir in sugar till dissolve
Cool and add the elderflowers, sliced lemons and vinegar.
Leave for 2-3 days stirring daily then strain and bottle(clean fizzy drinks bottles are ideal-if they explode there’s only a sticky mess not broken glass). Leave for about 10 days somewhere warm after which its ready to drink but then move to a cool place to keep. Its recommended to drink within a couple of months but I’ve kept and drank it after a year to no ill effects
You drink the cordial after it has been left for a few days – but it is ready right away. We freeze it until needed just leaving one plastic bottle at a time out. By the way…is elderflower champagne alcoholic?
Elderflower Champagne is very slightly alcoholic don’t know to what extent as I’ve never tested it. I made for years without thinking it was alcoholic. I used to make a lot of wine and coz I never put yeast in the elderflower champagne thought it was just like a fizzy drink (my two lads drank it from about the age of five!!) It was only recently that someone told me there’s a natural yeast on the elderflowers (which is why you shouldn’t wash them before you use them).It would take about 5 gallons to get drunk I guess and it hasn’t seemed to affect the boys- they’re now 21 and 19 with the eldest at university!!
I am busy collecting elder flowers for my Elderflower Champagne. I’ve never made it before but I have sampled it and I thought the brew I tried was lovely. I’m keen to make an alcoholic batch (no comments please) as I’ve been told that it is possible. Do you just add yeast and, if so, how much. Some really useful advice would be much appreciated. Jude.
I love the taste of elderflower and would love to make a responsible alcoholic drink too…
can anyone help, do you just ad yeast?
Can anyone help me? I’m making Elderflower Champagne at the moment, and nothing seems to happening in the bucked. It doesn’t appear to be fermenting at all. It that normal, and all the fizzies will happen once it’s in the bottle, or should noticeably ferment before putting it in the bottles?
Thanks,
Rachel
hi, i’m 3 days into my elderflower champagne and it is starting to ferment. try the river cottage recipe as it is supposed to be quite alcoholic..if you compare the recipes to others there are huge amounts of elderflowers and sugar…so i think that effects the alcoholic volume..as the yeast is in the flowers.
try it anyhow!!!
i made a load and one bottle exploded all over my kitchen… lol.
it was in a lambrini bottle, and the metal cap blew clean off the top leaving no liquid left in it.
Ive never seen these pink “Black lace” elderflowers before- beautiful. Tell me , if you tried making elderflower champagne with them- would you get PINK elderflower champagne?
That would be very cool!!!!!
???…, ? ? ??? ?? ???? ????, ???-?? ?????? ? ?????, ???? ???????? ?? ??? ?? ??????? :) ?? ???? ?????????? :)
It’s rather awesome,I have been searching materials relate to these stuffs for my paper.and it really helps me.
My elderflower champagne exploded all over a friend’s kitchen once. I had driven to her lovely country home over the Quantock Hills for lunch, the bottle sloshing around on the back seat in the sunshine! When she opened it to have with our lunch is went everywhere and I have not seen her since……so be warned! It is explosive stuff and you need to open the screw top lid slowly a little at a time!
Hi Gill
I am trying to create a new fruit juice brand, one product were going to have pressed apple and elderflower,in this industry usually everybody,when desing the label for elderflower, they use ,white colour or light yellow or light green .
,I never seen elderflower yet with pink flowers(Sambucus nigra “Black Lace”),I like to use a different colour combinations to be different , for labeling, if I can design the label light pink or pink in your opinion ,would that be a right one for this flower? usually elderflowers known as white colours ?
If you can help me with this to appreciate greatly. I really need a different opinion.
Best Regards
Alex Yesilirmak
When making elderflower champagne it’s best to use 2 litre pop bottles and only fill them 2/3 full, then when you put the lids on squeeze all the air out. By the next day the bottles will almost completely have filled up with gas and popped them back “full” again, so you need to let the pressure out by loosening the cap each day. Even plastic pop bottles, which are made to resist pressure, with explode eventually, after they’ve deformed out of all recognition.
Another nice drink if you’re into that sort of thing is mint and elderflower tea. If you grow and dry your own mint then use that otherwise a couple of mint tea bags and a head of elderflowers in a teapot, pour over some hot water, let it steep for a bit, yummy! You can also dry the elderflower heads to use them all year.