Lilac Jelly: How To Make Lilac Flower Jelly
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Try making this easy lilac flower jelly recipe and enjoy this unique floral treat all year long.
Flower jellies are so much fun to make! Each spring, I enjoy making large batches of dandelion jelly, wild violet jelly, peony jelly, and, of course, lilac jelly too. There are so many edible flower recipes you can make in the spring and summer.
Did you know lilac flowers are edible?
Yes really! They make a yummy jelly you just have to try.
If you’re wondering what lilac jelly tastes like, it has a mildly floral taste that definitely isn’t overbearing. It’s lovely to enjoy on toast, biscuits, or even with crackers and cheese.
How To Make Lilac Jelly
Prepare The Flowers
The first thing you’ll need to do, of course, is to go and gather your lilac flowers.
You can use any color of lilacs, the flavor should be the same, but the color of the finished jelly will be a little different if you use light or dark purple or even white lilac flowers.
Make sure to gather your flowers in a clean area that hasn’t been sprayed with any nasty chemicals.
After you’ve cut some nice bows of lilac flowers, you need to pull the petals off to separate the green parts of the flowers.
The green leaves and stems can make your jelly very bitter, so trust me, just pull off the petals!
They are actually really easy to separate, so this step goes pretty fast.
Make Lilac Tea
Once you have 2 cups of packed flower petals, it’s time to make the lilac tea. This is sometimes also called lilac-infused water.
Pour the flower petals into a quart-sized canning jar, then pour about 4 cups of boiling water over them. You’ll want the water to come up to the neck of the jar.
Cover the jar and let it sit until it cools down. Then place it in the fridge overnight to continue steeping.
The next day, when you’re ready, strain the flowers well and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
Measure out 3 1/2 to 4 cups of liquid and pour it into a large pot. If you are short on lilac tea, you can use water to make up the difference.
Add the 1/4 cup of lemon juice and one pouch of powdered pectin and bring the mixture to a boil.
When it starts to boil add in the 4 cups of sugar and stir it well and return to a boil.
Allow the mixture to boil for 1 to 2 minutes and remove from the heat.
Pour the jelly into hot canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.
Run a spatula around the inside edge to remove any air bubbles. Then wipe the edges of the jars clean, and place on the lids and rings finger tight.
Place the jars into a water bath canner and process for 10 minutes or according to your altitude.
Remove the jars from the canner and place them on a towel in a draft-free place. Let them sit undisturbed for 24 hours to let the seal harden.
Any jars that haven’t sealed after 24 hours need to be reprocessed or refrigerated.
This is definitely a wonderful flower jelly you must try when your lilac bushes are flowering!
More Ways To Use Lilacs
Lilac Jelly
Ingredients
- 2 cups of packed lilac blossoms leaves and stems removed
- 3-4 cups boiling water
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 pouch powdered pectin
Instructions
- Cut the lilac flowers from your tree, then remove the flower petals until you have 2 cups of firmly packed blossoms.
- Add the blossoms to a quart-sized canning jar and cover to the jar neck with boiling water. Cover the jar and let it cool, then place in the fridge overnight to steep.
- The next day strain the flowers, pressing or squeezing to remove as much liquid as possible. You should have 3 1/2 to 4 cups of liquid, make up the difference with water.
- Pour the lilac tea into a large pot, add the lemon juice and pectin and bring it to a boil.
- When it’s boiling add the sugar, stirring until it has dissolved and return the mixture to a full boil for 1-2 minutes.
- Remove from heat, skim off any foam and ladle into jars.
These values are from a nutritional database and automatically calculated, and should only be used as an approximation.
Don’t forget to pin the recipe for later!
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Kim Mills is a homeschooling mom of 6 and lives on an urban homestead in Ontario, Canada. Blogging at Homestead Acres she enjoys sharing tips to help you save money, grow and preserve your own food.
Hi. Question. Can you leave in some of the lilac flowers, or add some reserved fresh flower petals into the jelly right before canning to add texture and beauty?
@Gerri, No you are introducing a RAW unprocessed item that can grow bacteria.. you can cook them and leave them in if you want to experiment.. but i doubt that will do anything but ruin it…
Mine turned out much pinker. I don’t know if it’s because I used bottled lemon juice, are picked the lilacs right after a storm, but, definitely much pinker. The change was instantaneously visible as soon as I put the lemon juice in. A much more subtle floral flavor than rose jam.
Holy Smokes!! I Made this last evening and it’s absolutely DELICIOUS!!!! I was so skeptical Boy ol boy!! I’ll be making another batch of this over the weekend. Thank you for sharing:)
Ive made this before but came over to compare prep directions! My jelly is a light reddish tint! I used a lot of DARK purple lilacs!
This was my first time making (or tasting) flower jelly and it’s so delicious that I couldn’t wait for it to gel before drizzling it on sourdough bread with kerrygold butter 💕💕
I think the older, wilted lilacs are far easier to remove from the stems than the fresh ones. I made sure to have absolutely no green in my batch. I accidentally forgot about it in the fridge until it made a nice, dark tea. So my jelly is especially floral flavored. I LOVE IT and I can’t wait to try this recipe out with other flowers!
do you have labels for your lilac jelly, wild violet jelly, and peony jelly
So I’ve reboiled my jelly and hopefully this worked- however it has taken away the gorgeous pink colour and now is a little peachy colour. Why is that? Thanks
Hi Amanda, The color change was likely just from cooking it longer. If you want to adjust the color you can use some food coloring. I just saw your last comment and it looks like you waited about 3 days for the jelly to set and then recooked it? Jelly can set up firm after about 24 hours but it’s also common for it to take a week or sometimes a few weeks to set, it depends a lot on the pectin. So I normally wait a few weeks before recooking the jelly.
@Amanda Clark, OH please dont use food colour!!! I know this is a year late but please don’t.
@Kim, You’re a gem! Wonderfully refreshing to find such a wise, deeply knowledgeable and sensible woman; and right here in Ontario. I was searching on how to redo my unset low sugar, 2 ingredient raspberry jam using some old homemade liquid pectin at the back of my fridge. Love this reply. I’m going with it!
Hello,
I made your recipe yesterday afternoon and followed measurements exactly. It still hasn’t jelled the next morning. What have I don’t wrong 🙁
Hi Amanda, Often jelly will set in about 24 hours after making it but sometimes it can take a week or longer. If it doesn’t firm up after a few weeks you can try one of these ways of fixing runny jelly or use it as syrup. https://www.homestead-acres.com/how-to-fix-jam-or-jelly-that-didnt-set/
I’m wondering on when will be the best to harvest the flowers? Is there a special time when they are perfect for jelly making? Thanks.
You can pick the flowers anytime from when they first open right up until just before they start falling off the bush. I like to start gathering some each day once they bloom so I can make a few batches a day. But this year we had a cold front come through 2 days after the flowers opened. The cold weather and strong winds started making the flower fall off sooner than normal. We rushed to pick a few baskets and the jelly still came out great.
I followed the directions exactly for a double batch and it never gelled. I was left with a sticky mess that I needed to redo and a waste of lids that can not be re-used. As a microbiologist and long-time canner I doubt I made an error.
Ann, you should never try to double a jelly or jam recipe. It almost never works jams and jellies need to be cooked in small batches.
Hi Kim,
I made the lilac jelly tonight and I just realised we might have used different measurements for pectin. I’m in England and a box of pectin has six pouches and all together weigh 48 grams. How much does your pouch of dry pectin weigh in Canada? I was hyperventilating a minute ago, but if the pectin is off I guess I’ll end up with a nice syrup?! The flavour is wonderful! Thank you,
Adina
Hi Adina, I just checked and the boxes of powdered pectin sold here are 57 grams. That’s a little different but hopefully, it set ok for you!
Just made this jelly and it’s wonderful! So sweet, like honey! My daughters & I had a fantastic time making it. Thank you so much for this recipe.
I inherited a bunch of lilac shrubs with our new home, and it was fun to find a recipe to use them for something new and different (to me)! I made two batches. The first one was a little bitter, so I wondered if I’d gotten some leaves or stems in it. So, I made the second one being super careful to only get petals. There’s really no difference in the taste between the two, so I’m wondering if that’s just the way it tastes? It’s only a little bitter, and only at the end of the taste, if that makes sense. It’s DELICIOUS with cream cheese on crackers, and I’m going to try using it to glaze a cheesecake. What other things are people using it for?
@BARBARA,
I have used other recipes in the past and this is the only one that gave me a bitter taste, and it did not gel. I would suggest you try some other sources for recipes.
Ann as you already said in your other comment you didn’t follow my recipe, so if it turned out bitter and not gelled that’s why. You doubled the recipe and you never, ever double jelly recipes as it will almost never set that way. If the jelly turned out bitter you might not have removed the green stems as that is the most common cause for bitter tasting flower jellies.
This is a question more than a comment. When I make jelly I use the inversion method instead of the traditional canning method. Would this method work for lilac jelly or does it have to be the canning method?
Could you replace the sugar with honey? 4 cups of sugar just seems like a lot!1
Have made 5 batches now. Wonderful easy recipe. Question: can you mix fruit into the flower tea say, blueberry with lilac?
My first time making jelly. I’m not getting the runny part. Does it go jelly over time? I feel lost. Lol
Yes, it can take a few days for it to fully set sometimes. But there are many reasons why jelly doesn’t set. You can see them here as well as how to fix it.
Your lilac jelly is yellow rather than pink like I’ve seen from other lilac jelly recipe sites. Your recipe seems to follow the same steps. I’m confused if I’m missing something.
Hi Lynn, the color will be a bit different depending on the color of your lilac flowers. Lilacs come in dark purple, light purple, white, red, and bicolor. The ones I grow are a very light purple color. Some people also add food coloring to make their jellies a brighter color.
I just did two batches of lilac from same bush. One is a very nice pink and the other is yellow like the dandelion jelly. The only thing I can think of was that I used boiling water out of teapot for pink and hot water ( mine is HOT) out of facet for yellow batch.
Which do you prefer: violet, lilac or dandelion jelly. Are they much different in flavor? Have you made redbud jelly?