Elderflower, Lemon and Vanilla Cordial

5.00 (5)
⏱ 50 mins 🍽 Makes 1 litre 🌶 british ✅ Easy 🏷 Afternoon tea

This fragrant cordial is a classic British concentrate, ideal for creating a refreshing floral drink. It combines fresh elderflowers with lemon and vanilla for a beautifully aromatic flavour. The cordial can be diluted with iced water or used to add a delicate taste to creamy desserts such as fools and syllabubs. The recipe yields 1 litre of concentrate, ready to be stored in sterilised bottles for later use.

Elderflower, Lemon and Vanilla Cordial

Ingredients

  • 1kg caster sugar
  • 2 unwaxed organic lemons halved, plus a strip of peel
  • 1 vanilla pod seeds reserved
  • 1 tbsp citric acid powder or vitamin C powder
  • about 40 fresh elderflowers shaken free of bugs, lightly rinsed

Method

  1. Place 2 litres of water into a large saucepan. Add the sugar, halved lemons, vanilla pod and citric acid powder, then bring the mixture to a boil slowly. Once boiling, continue cooking until the liquid has reduced by half, then take the pan off the heat.
  2. Gently stir the elderflowers into the hot pan. Allow the mixture to cool down fully. Once cool, strain it through a muslin-lined sieve into a separate clean pan. Whisk the reserved vanilla seeds into the liquid. Pour the finished cordial into sterilised bottles, adding a strip of lemon peel and the vanilla pod to each. For a drink, mix 1 part cordial with 5 parts iced water.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories67 kcal
Carbs17 g
Sugars17 g

Recipe details

Skill levelEasy
CategoryAfternoon tea
Cuisinebritish
DietDairy-free, Egg-free, Vegan, Vegetarian