Elderflower jelly

It's a sure sign that summer's here when the Elder bushes are clothed in umbels of frothy white flowers. The fragrance of which is so heady and sweet, even the most olfactorily challenged of us cannot fail to be moved. This is my favourite of all the hedgerow.

Each year, I pick a bag of these prized blooms and head home in anticipation to make something wonderful.

In previous years I've made cordial which tastes divine and evokes memories of picnics in the English countryside.

This year I was determined that I would make elderflower jelly, inspired by the dandelion jelly making of my daughters with Alison, the owner of French gites in the normandy countryside.

Check out the fruits of their labour at this blog

http://orchardgites.blogspot.com

Now that I knew what i was making, next was finding the recipe. I've never made jelly before so felt better with a recipe. The internet proved useless, nowhere was there a recipe for the jelly without added apples, strawberries or gooseberries. The only thing to do was to adapt one which was for a muscat jelly (thanks Nigella)

All things considered, this recipe was a great success, the jelly is so fragrant and sweet, tastes like honey and looks like nectar