Making Lilac Jelly

@walkerland brought it to my attention that you can make jelly with lots of flowers, not just the violet I had done. So I decided I was going to try lilac and dandelion next.

It was to rain all day one Saturday so I went out Friday night and collected this basket full of blooms. Not sure why I picked so many, I only needed 2 cups for the recipe.

I put the extras in a covered bowl in the fridge and used them to make 2 more batches on Sunday.

The recipe was very specific about it being just flowers, no leaves, buds, or stems. Each bloom has a stem at the end of the corolla tube. I used my thumb nail to cut the tube just above the stem.

Processing lilacs

Stems

Buds left over

I left the buds that had not opened, just put them in a bowl of water. As you can see, even with short stems, they’ve all opened.

Just the blossoms (except 1 stem I missed….)

2 cups of blossoms

I put the blossoms in a Mason jar and covered them with 2½ cups of boiling water. I put a cover on the jar and left it for 12 hrs. The directions say at least 8 hours or overnight. In the morning I strained and squeezed the liquid out.

I got this beautiful pink flower infusion from my medium purple flowers.

2½ cups of flower infusion

Ingredients for lilac jelly (flower infusion is violet, why it’s so dark….)

This recipe is with Sure-Jell. I also did 2 with the Pomona in the photo.

Ingredients:

2½ cups lilac infusion
4 cups sugar
¼ cup lemon juice
½ tsp. butter
Box of Sure-Jell pectin

Method:

Mix the lemon juice into the infusion well. This will help hold the color.

Heat your jars, lids, and rings for 10 minutes to sterilize them. Leave them in the hot water until you fill each one.

In a non-reactive pot place the infusion mix, butter and pectin powder and mix very well. Bring to a rolling boil. Add the sugar and return to a boil. Stir constantly for 1 minute and remove from heat.

There will be a lot of foam, but if you let it set for a few minutes it will reduce. Skim off what’s left. This may not look very good, but kids will like it!

Into each hot jar, using a funnel, pour the jelly up to ¼” from the top of the jar. Wipe the rim with a clean cloth, set a hot lid on and put the ring on tight.

Once you’ve filled all the jars, return them to the canning kettle of hot water and bring to a rolling boil. Process them at this point for 10 minutes.

Set them on a towel spaced evenly apart to cool. This can take several hours and they should not be disturbed. You will hear the ping of the lids as they seal when they cool.

Once they are all cool, check the lids to make sure the center is depressed. Label with contents name and the month/date.

Jellies done, left to right: violet (2 rows), lilac (2 rows), dandelion

They did not set-up very well using the Sure-Jell recipe. I also used the Pomona recipe, increasing the pectin to 4 tsps. This set-up slightly better but still not firm jelly.

I made 1 batch with the Pomona first using 3 tsp. pectin. It did not set-up at all. But they all have pretty color and a heavenly smell.

In the autumn I plan to make a pectin jelly from my crabapples. Hopefully his will help the jellies set-up well next year.

Credit for recipe: https://commonsensehome.com/how-to-make-lilac-jelly/