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Elderflower cordial – to me it’s like summer in a glass! Add a sustainable sundress, sunglasses, toxin-free sunscreen and my trusty and always-comfy Salt-Water Sandals and I’m in summer heaven! This year I’ve made three lots of homemade elderflower cordial and it’s so easy. I thought I’d share a homemade elderflower cordial recipe with you, so you can give it a try too.
Read on for my quick homemade elderflower recipe and see how easy it is to make this delightfully sweet and fruity summer cordial. You can even freeze this homemade cordial so you can enjoy it through the winter!
How Easy is it to Make Homemade Elderflower Cordial?
For some reason, I always thought it would be difficult or time consuming to make elderflower cordial. Wrong! It’s so easy to make homemade elderflower cordial, and it only takes five ingredients, and one of them is water, This means making your own elderflower cordial is really cheap as all you need are elderflower heads (you can collect these for free on commons and in parks throughout June), a lemon, citric acid, sugar, and water. All cheap ingredients, though you will probably have to buy the citric acid online.
You can find elderflower growing wild across the UK during late May and June. The first time I tried to get some I accidentally gathered cow parsley, so make sure you’re actually collecting elderflowers, he he.
How to Identify Elderflowers
Elderflowers have bunches of creamy white tiny starlike flowers. They have quite big pointy dark green leaves and elderflowers grow up at eye-level on bushes, and higher. Once you start looking, you’ll see it everywhere.
Ingredients for Homemade Elderflower Cordial
To make about 1.2 litres of homemade elderflower cordial you’ll need:
- 10-12 elderflower heads, washed and drained
- 900g caster or granulated sugar (caster sugar is better if you have it, as it dissolves much more easily)
- 600ml boiling water
- 30g citric acid (buy here if you don’t have any)
- 1 lemon (unwaxed is better if you can get one)
Equipment for Homemade Elderflower Cordial
You’ll probably have most of the equipment already:
- Kitchen scales
- Grater
- Measuring jug
- Large heat-proof bowl or saucepan
- Large bowl (one with a spout like this is perfect as you’ll be pouring it into a bottle)
- Spoon
- Colander
- Fine mesh muslin straining cloth – you may get on OK with a tea towel or coffee filters, but I think it might be a bit more difficult
- Clean empty bottles or jars – you could reuse any bottle with a lid as long as you clean it properly, otherwise you can buy lovely reusable glass bottles online.
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Easy Homemade Elderflower Cordial Method
First gather 12 elderflower heads, wash them thoroughly, and drain them in a colander. Check for insects!
Next, measure 900g of caster or granulated sugar and pour into a large heatproof bowl or saucepan.
Pour 600ml of boiling water over the sugar and stir to dissolve using a spoon.
Measure 30g citric acid and pour into the sugar water, and stir to dissolve.
Next, grate the zest of a lemon into the sugar mixture.
Slice the lemon and add to the pot.
Add the elderflower heads, stir thoroughly and add a lid. Leave for 12 hours, or overnight. Doesn’t it look pretty?
The next day, put your colander over a large bowl, preferably with a spout, and line with the muslin straining cloth. Carefully pour your elderflower cordial mix in, and squeeze out all the liquid from the cloth.
Finally, pour it into a clean bottle (or a few depending on the size) and pop it in the fridge to store. It will keep for a month, and you can freeze it too.
How to Drink Homemade Elderflower Cordial
So now you’ve made your delicious homemade elderflower cordial, what should you do with it? Well the simplest way to enjoy elderflower cordial is to use it like squash and dilute it to taste with water.
Elderflower cordial also works well with sparkling water and tonic water. It makes a fantastic addition to gin and tonic too, yum yum. My favourite is with pink gin.
Adding a splash of elderflower cordial to prosecco or champagne is also a lovely refreshing drink, I highly recommend it!
The best thing about making your own homemade elderflower cordial is that you can freeze it, and enjoy it throughout the year. Just make sure you leave enough space in the bottle as it will expand and you don’t want a freezer explosion!
I hope you’re enjoyed my homemade elderflower cordial recipe, why not Pin it for later?
Looking for more homemade drinks recipes? You’ll love my homemade creme de cacao recipe, that makes espresso martinis extra special!
A refreshing cold drink especially in summer, note it for next year ; have to locate where I can harvest elderflower 🙂
Yes good idea, then when you spot them you’ll be ready to go! Thanks so much for reading x