Elderflower Cordial

Okay, so yes this post is way overdue but I figured I would type it up anyway, at least you can get yourselves prepared for next year.  Plus the fact I took great pleasure in taking lots of pretty pictures of the ingredients, it seemed a shame to keep them all to myself.

I have never made Elderflower cordial before and have often drooled over fellow blogger's pictures of the pretty stuff in years gone by.  When we moved into our little house I was delighted to discover and Elderflower tree in our very own garden, but what with one thing and another I seemed to miss the Elderflower season last year.  Although the Elderberries were lovely, I was determined not to miss the flower this year.  I've not been doing my seasonal bucket lists recently but if I had of been this would definitely of been on my summer to do list (makes mental note....Must start doing those lists again).

It has such a summery smell, very floral and fragrant, providing it isn't too over-powering, then I'm not so keen.

The sugar helped with the smell, boiling that up for a while made the kitchen smell very sweet.

Then of course there were the lemons.  Not many things say summer like lemons.

And washing all the flowers was a pretty job.  I felt like a proper country housewife making this I can tell you.

But then I had to boil it all up together and then I really wasn't too sure.  It looked very pretty but the smell, hmmm well I didn't like it.   It was so strong, it made me feel a bit sick.  I stuck with it though.  After it had boiled I had to leave it for 24 hours so it the pan it stayed.

  

I bottled it up the next day and took my first taste.  I was gutted, I hated it.  James quite liked it though, unless he was just being polite.  At least I can say I've tried it, I'm glad I made it but I shan't be doing it again, I'll just stick with the berries in future.  In the excitement of it being finished I forgot to take photos of the actual drink, sorry, but your really not missing all that much.

I found the recipe on the BBC Good Food website, I have used many of their recipes for various other things before and have always been impressed.  Give it a go, you may like it and if not, well you can say you tried as well :)

Gem x x x