Needing a quick recipe, I went to the BBC food website and found a very simple to make cordial by Lotte Duncan.
Ingredients (to make 2 litres)
Around 30 Elderflower heads
1.7 litres boiling water
900g Caster Sugar (I used granulated)
50g citric acid
2 Oranges
3 Lemons
The Theory
Rinse the elderflowers, picking out any bugs, leaves or bits of twig
Put sugar and boiling water in a bowl, stir until the sugar is dissolved and then leave to cool.
Add the citric acid, citrus fruit and flowers
Stir and leave in a cool place for 24 hours, stirring occasionally
Strain and transfer to sterilised bottles
It pretty much went as planned. Knowing that I was going to have to freeze this to last until Christmas (kept in the fridge, it lasts about a month or so), I filled it into empty 500ml plastic Coke bottles. Sure, it isn't going to look good, but I can always defrost it and put it into a nice jug. I filtered it through a fine sieve, but the resultant cordial still had the odd flower in, but not to worry - it looks a bit more authentic!
I expected the cordial to be a bit thicker, like you get from commercial cordial, but it wasn't. With a consistency akin to orange squash, it is very refreshing when diluted with a bit of water. I've picked some more elderflowers from the abundant tree so will be playing around with the recipe to try and make a slightly thicker cordial - a bit more sugar (1kg) and a bit less water (1.4litres).
WARNING
The roots, seeds, leaves, twigs and branches of the elder contain a cyanide-inducing glycoside, which means that if you eat too much of these parts, it can cause a build up of cyanide in your body when digested. Infusions of the flowers and the ripe berries are safe to eat.
