Flowers

Lilac Lemonade

Lilac lemonade is very easy to make. If you have ever had lavender lemonade, this lemonade actually tastes very similar.

To make this easy lemonade, you will need about 2 cups of fresh Lilac blossoms. Make sure to pick Lilacs that have not been sprayed with any chemicals. Wash them to remove any insects and gently pull off the Lilac blossoms to make two cups.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups fresh Lilac blossoms
  • 1 cup sugar or honey
  • 16 cups water
  • Juice of 4 lemons

To really get the flavor of the Lilac blossoms, you will need to boil the blossoms like you would to make tea. Place the Lilac blossoms in a sauce pan and cover them with water. Bring the water to a boil.

Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for about 20 minutes. The longer you let it sit, the stronger the Lilac flavor will be. Strain the Lilac blossoms out of the water with a fine mesh strainer.

Place the liquid in a 1 gallon container and add the sugar or honey, lemon juice, and remaining water. Stir. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Garnish with a sprig of fresh Lilac flowers if desired.

You can also freeze fresh Lilac flowers in water in an ice cube tray, putting 2 or 3 of the tiny florets in each cube. This makes a cute way to dress up your Lilac Lemonade.

Notes:

This recipe is made with fresh Lilac blossoms. If you want to preserve your Lilac blossoms to make Lilac lemonade when your Lilacs are out of season, then see the the following posts for:

This recipe makes approximately 1 gallon of lemonade. You can cut the recipe in half, and you can also adjust the recipe to suit your tastes if you would like to use less sugar or more lemon juice.

Found at: Creative Homemaking

Lilac Blossom Scones

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups flour, all-purpose
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • One teaspoon salt
  • 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
  • 1 cup buttermilk, shaken well
  • One teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup toasted, chopped almonds
  • 1 cup lilac flowers

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk the ingredients together. Cut the chilled butter into small cubes and toss into the dry mixture. Using your fingers and hands, work the butter into the flour mixture, until pea-sized lumps of butter are present.

Add the buttermilk, vanilla extract, almonds, and lilac blossoms. Fold together in the bowl. I kneaded the dough by hand, making sure to not over-work.

Gather and roll the dough into a ball. Lightly flour the ball of dough and flatten it out, by hand, into a 1/2 inch thick disk. Cut the dough into triangles and place onto a greased baking sheet.

Lightly dust with raw sugar. I greased my sheet with butter. Bake 12 to 16 minutes, until desired level of toastiness.

Found at: Holly and Flora

Lilac Sugar

How easy is this?

All you need is equal parts fully opened lilac blossoms, green stems removed, and granulated sugar.

Blend in a food processor till the blossoms have completely broken down. The finished sugar will be moist due to the moisture content of the fresh blossoms, so lay out the sugar on a parchment lined baking sheet and let them air dry.

You can speed up the process by heating the oven to 200 F, placing the baking sheet on the center rack, and then turning off the heat. In no time the sugar will be dried out. It will be a tad clumpy, so just give it another whiz in the food processor. Or you can just do so by hand using a mortar and pestle.

Et voila, the most fragrant sugar you will ever come across! Even as it was drying out in the oven, the kitchen was already taking on a lovely perfume. I had enough for my pie, as well as for tea for the next little while! I also added a few crushed lilac petals to the ground sugar, just for color and added texture.

From: Food 52

Lilac Ice Cream

Fragrant and sweet. Who can resist this? Here’s what you will need:

  • about 100 lilac florets
  • 150ml milk
  • 25g sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 200ml heavy cream

Pick the florets off a bloom of lilac and rinse them. Warm the milk, sugar, salt and lilac florets in a small, heavy saucepan over a medium heat, stirring to dissolve. Remove from the heat when the milk is starting to steam and before it actually starts to simmer.

Taste at this point to check the level of lilac flavor, remembering that the flavor will dissipate somewhat with the addition of the other ingredients. For a stronger flavor, leave the mixture to infuse and taste periodically.

When ready, strain off the lilac florets and warm (but don’t simmer) the mixture again.

Break the egg yolks into a small bowl and stir them together. Gradually add some of the warmed milk to the yolks, stirring constantly, then add the warmed yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk.

Cook the egg and milk mixture (or we can call it custard now) over a low heat, stirring frequently, until it’s thick enough to coat your spoon or spatula (this took me around 12 minutes or so). Now pour the custard mixture into the cream, stirring to combine.

Chill the mixture by sitting it in an ice bath and then freeze either using an ice cream maker, if you’ve got one, or as follows, if you don’t:

Put the mixture in a deep baking dish or bowl and place in the freezer. After about 45 minutes, once the mixture has started to freeze around the edges, remove the bowl and beat the mixture vigorously, using a whisk or a hand blender to break up any ice crystals that have started forming.

Return the mixture to the freezer and repeat this roughly every 30 minutes until the ice cream is frozen which, depending on your freezer, may take take 3-6 hours.

Instead of using sugar, it might be even more fun to sweeten the ice cream with Lilac Honey.

From: The Daily Spud

Lilac Jelly

  • 2 c. packed lilac flowers
  • 2 1/2 c. boiling water

Pour the boiling water over the lilac flowers, cover and allow to cool. Allow the infusion to sit 8 hours, or overnight. Strain the flowers from the liquid using a coffee filter, you should have about 2 1/4 c. liquid. This is your Lilac infusion.

  • 2 c. lilac infusion
  • 4 T lemon juice
  • 1 box Sure-Jell powdered pectin
  • 4 c. sugar

Place the lilac infusion, lemon juice and pectin in a large pot. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to a rolling boil. Add all of the sugar at once, and stir to dissolve. Bring the jelly back up to a rolling boil for 1 minute.

Remove the jelly from the heat, skim the foam from the top (I got a lot of foam from this recipe) and ladle into hot, sterilized jars. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Makes 8- 4 oz jars.

From: The Three Foragers

Lilac Syrup

Pour over pancakes, add as a liquor base, or a nonalcoholic lemonade base. The extra syrup can be frozen in mason jars to keep year round. It is quite simple to make:

  • 1 cup of water
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 cup of lilac flowers (stems and green parts removed)

Combine the water and sugar over medium heat on the stove. Heat until dissolved. Add the lilac flowers and simmer for 10 minutes. If you want a brightly hued syrup, add about five blueberries. The color will pop and add a great dimension to your cocktails. Remove from heat, drain through a sieve, bottle, and store in the refrigerator.

From: Holly and Flora

Lilac Honey 

Fill a jar (1/2 pint, pint, quart etc.) with freshly picked flowers with a little room at the top. Pour over honey to the top and cap. Allow to infuse for at least 6 weeks. No need to strain afterwards – eat the flowers along with the honey! Great for adding to recipes, spreading on bread, or adding to teas.

Note: Always use raw, unfiltered honey. Use local honey whenever possible.

From: The Practical Herbalist

Wild Rose Blossom Ice Cream

Any fragrant edible blossom will do, so long as it is abundant.

  • 100 ml full fat milk
  • 200 ml double cream
  • 4 cups wild rose blossoms
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 30 grams caster sugar

Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan with the blossoms and vanilla essence. Heat the mixture until it begins to simmer. Remove, put to one side and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain out the blossoms.

Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until creamy. Then gently pour the cream mixture onto the yolks, whisking all the while. Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat for a minute or two to thicken.

Pour into an ice-cream machine, if you have one, and churn. Otherwise, pour the ice cream into a bowl and freeze. Stir often until it resembles ice cream.

From: Foraging by John Lewis-Stempel

 

Nyponsoppa – Rose Hip Soup

This Swedish soup, blood red in color, is traditionally served as pudding.

  • 600 ml Rose hips
  • 2.6 litres water
  • 3 tbsp potato flour
  • 100 grams sugar
  • 4 tsp ground almonds

Rinse the Rose hips and place them in a heavy bottomed saucepan with the water, and bring to a boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the hips are soft – about 20 to 30 minutes.

Blend the hip pulp in a mixer and pass through a fine sieve or jelly bag, returning the liquid to the saucepan. Stir the potato flour into a little cold water, then add to the saucepan, along with the sugar.

Bring to a boil again. Turn down the heat, and let the soup cool. Serve with ground almonds on top. Macaroons and ice cream are also familiar floats in Nyponsoppa.

Serves 4

From: Foraging by John Lewis-Stempel

Fried Squash Blossoms Stuffed With Cheese

Before I share this recipe with you, I want to help you select the blooms.

Use the blossoms from zucchini, or pumpkin. Other squash flowers may have strong, unpleasant flavors. Harvest the male flowers once they have just opened. The male flowers have stems and you can tell them from females, because the females are attached to the squash. They also go on to say that you should use them as soon as possible, but I have found that the blossoms are not as delicate as they seem. In fact, I have actually left them inside and uncovered carton in the refrigerator a couple of days and still find them easy to work with if not better.

Don’t worry, if you don’t have the luxury of growing your own squash, and you can’t find them, ask one of the farmers for flowers at your local farmers’ market or in specialty food stores. If they have zucchini on their farm stand, they’ll have blooms on their farm. I just so happen to know that farmers don’t bite and they will be happy to help you get some blossoms. Just ask!

Fried squash blossoms are practically a delicacy! The delicate squash blossoms are filled with a well seasoned creamy ricotta cheese, dipped in a light batter and fried to a crispy golden brown. If you have your own garden and zucchini are starting to run out of your ears this summer, here’s something different you can try. Prepare them as unique appetizer or as a side dish this summer for family and friends.

Here’s how you make them:

These delicate fried squash blossoms are filled with a creamy ricotta cheese mixture and dipped in a light batter, fried to a golden brown. They’re amazing! |

Ingredients:

  • ¾ cup cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon season salt
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 egg, slightly beaten
  • 10 to 15 squash blossoms
  • ½ cup ricotta cheese
  • ¼ cup mayonnaise
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon bread crumbs
  • peanut, canola or vegetable oil, for frying
  • Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste

The batter:

Combine cornstarch, baking powder, pepper, flour, then season with salt. Stir in the egg and water until smooth. Store in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes before frying.

The blossoms:

While the batter is chilling, prepare the squash blossoms.

Use your fingers to carefully separate the flower petals without breaking them and remove the pistil in the center. Rinse the flowers under cold water, paying attention not to damage petals. Lay them spaced out on a paper towel and gently pat dry.

The cheese:

Combine the cheese, mayonnaise, oregano, and breadcrumbs until smooth.

Pour the filling inside a piping bag or use a plastic storage bag and cut the tip off one corner, so that you can carefully add about a tablespoon of this mixture to each blossom and twist the top of the flower tight.

Frying them up:

Heat enough oil in a frying pan to accommodate the blossoms (about 1 inch deep). Get the batter out of the fridge and dip each blossom in batter, coating it.

 

When the oil is hot, carefully place each batter-covered blossom in the hot oil and fry until golden crisp on both sides.

  • Be careful! This batter contains a little water, which tends to make it pop and spatter a little more than usual.

Remove the blossoms and drain on paper towels; sprinkle with salt and pepper, while hot.

Allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Serve warm. Makes: 15.

From: The Mountain Kitchen

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