Description
This is a way of infusing honey with the scent and taste of lilac. It can be used as a spread on bread or toast or as a culinary ingredient.
Ingredients
- A small jar of honey (avoid honey that is strongly flavoured and, if there are any small producers near you, try and use that and support your local bees!)
- Lilac flowers (as with any edible flowers, make sure that you know that these have not been sprayed with pesticides etc)
Instructions
- Wash your lilacs and pull the little flowers off the stems.
- Sterilise your jam-jar.
- Fill your jam-jar with the flowers.
- Pour in honey into your jam-jar until it reaches the top.
- Put a lid on your jar and leave it in a cool place (larder or cupboard) for at least one week. At the end of this time, the honey will have been infused with the perfume of the lilac flowers.
- When you wish to use your honey, you can strain it through a wide-meshed sieve to remove the flowers. If the honey is too viscous, you can strain it more easily if you warm it slightly by putting the jar in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes.
Notes
You can sterilise your jam-jar by washing it in warm, soapy water, rinsing well and then drying off for 15 minutes in an oven set at 140C/120C fan/gas 1.
Although preparation time is only 15 minutes, you will need to leave the honey for around a week to allow the lilac flavour to infuse.
Keywords: lilac honey