I normally post up recipes for alcoholic drinks, but this time here is one for a really nice soft drink.
This is easy to make and will provide you with plenty of cordial to last the summer.
Ingredients:
- 1 carrier bag of elderflower heads
- 2 lemons
- 1 camden tablet
- 2.25 kg sugar
- 3 tbsp citric acid
- 3 litres water
Trim the excess stalks from the elderflowers and place them in a bucket/large pan, making sure that you remove any beetles, caterpillars etc.
Add the water, adding more if the flowers aren’t covered. Add the juice from the lemons, cut the rinds into chunks and add these too. Give the mix a good stir and cover with the lid or a cloth.
Leave for 4 days, giving it a stir every day.
After four days strain the mixture into a large pan using a a straining bag or clean, sterile muslin.
Measure the liquid and for every litre add 1 tbsp of citric acid and 750g of sugar (the ingredients list assumes that you will have 3 litres of liquid). Add an additional 2 tbsp of citric acid and gently bring the liquid to the boil, stirring all the time to make sure the sugar dissolves and doesn’t stick on the bottom of the pan.
When it starts to boil, leave it boiling gently for about a minute then turn off the heat and leave to cool.
When it is around 25°C, crush the camden tablet and stir into the liquid ensuring that it dissolves.
Transfer into sterilised bottles and keep in a cool dark cupboard or the fridge, but the cupboard should be fine as the camden tablet acts as a preservative.
We have found that this is best when diluted 1 part cordial to 4 parts water.
Enjoy!
[...] rest of the recipe is the same as the Elderflower Cordial apart from only using the rind of one of the lemons, only one additional tablespoon of citric acid [...]