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Honeysuckle Flower Jelly

Source of Recipe

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Recipe Introduction

Various Flower Jelly Recipes

List of Ingredients

Honeysuckle Jelly

This is a delicious golden jelly that tastes a bit like honey.
Makes 12-15 8 oz jars
Ingredients
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8 cups liquid (instructions below) shopping list
2 tsp. lemon juice shopping list
3 boxes of pectin
shopping list
10 cups sugar shopping list
How to make it
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To make the honeysuckle juice, pick blossoms that are opened, but not old. (I used wild yellow honeysuckle, but I think any honeysuckle will work.) You'll need at least two to three quarts of flowers. Pick through the flowers and rinse in the sink. In a Dutch oven, bring the flowers and enough water to cover the flowers to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, cool, and refrigerate at least overnight. At this point I usually dump the flowers and water into a gallon jar and refrigerate until the weekend. This has a bonus of infusing the flowers longer to create a stronger flavor.
When ready to make jelly, strain the flowers from the water. I use a permanent screen-type coffee filter and sometimes my jelly comes out a little cloudy. If you want perfectly clear jelly I recommend straining the juice through several layers of cheesecloth, or I've used my cotton flour sack towels for this also.
Measure the honeysuckle liquid into a large and heavy dutch kettle and add lemon juice and pectin. Bring to a full roiling boil, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar. Continuing to stir constantly, return to rolling boil and boil 1 minute, timing from the point of the full rolling boil.
Remove from heat. Skim as needed to remove any foam. Carefully ladle into hot jelly jars or pint jars. Wipe threads and rims carefully then top with prepared lids and rings. Put into boiling water bath canner and process for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow jars to sit in hot water for 10 minutes longer. Remove jars from canner and put on kitchen towels on the counter. Cover with a second towel and let sit at least overnight.

Basic flower jelly
-- Wash the flowers. Make an infusion from edible flowers. 1 pint of flowers to 1 pint of boiling water. Most flowers have a bitter bit where the petal joins the flower so you must cut that part off. I use scissors and just trim the petals of flowers, leaving the points attached. (though once I actually snipped the points off 2 quarts of rose petals.... tedious beyond belief!) 2 C flower infusion 1/4 C lemon juice 4 C sugar 6 oz liquid pectin *optional; few drops food coloring Mix infusion, lemon juice and sugar in stainless steel or enamelware pan. Bring to hard boil you can't stir down. Add liquid pectin and return to hard boil. Boil at this temp. 2 minutes. Pour immediately into hot sterilized jars and seal. Process for 5 min in waterbath]. Makes 4-4.5 cups of jelly

Quick Honeysuckle Jelly
You need to collect 2 cups of honeysuckle... remove or trim the stigma and clip the little green piece connecting the flower to the vine. (those little green ends are bitter.)

Note**This is going to take a LONG time to do...

Now boil 2 cups of water and then seep the flowers in the water (I'm using cheese cloth) for about 30 minutes. I'm doing an hour. You can refrigerate any extra for batches another day.

Now you can boil the infused water with 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp of lemon zest (optional) and 3 oz liquid pectin. Boil until it can not be stopped by stirring and add 4 cups of sugar, again bring to a boil for 1 minute.

Then add to sterilzed jars, seal and water bath for 10 minutes.



Recipe