For this recipe..... you will need:
-hand washed edible rose petals......(the more the better, but make it one variety). Either pick in the morning right after the dew or late afternoon. Midday will cause for saggy, droopy, & dehydrated rose petals. We have a great edible tea rose growing right in our backyard, (thanks mom!), called Hansa, which has an old fashioned rose & clove fragrance. Make sure each petal is clean. (This is the most tedious part but soo worth it.) And remember...if you used pesticides, it's not edible!
-a wooden spoon with holes so you can drain the petals as you remove them from your liquid
-purified water
-alot of sugar
-a white interior enamel pot. DO NOT use any stainless steal for ANY part of this recipe. (not even a silver spoon.) The metal will cause the liquid to turn a green color. Yuck! I've been searching the Internet and only came across a 'Denmark' brand on Amazon.com that closely resembles my cookware from Europe. (Thanks Grandma!)
-paper towels
-a ceramic or porcelain dinner dish. You will need these with paper towels on them to absorb the liquid from the drained rose petals.
Look at these beautiful petals! |
Now... when making syrups, I've learned that EVERYTHING is based on ratio. For my recipe, I had over 16 cups of rose petals. This means, I only needed 8 cups of water for my recipe. So....lets say you have 12 cups of petals. You will only need half, or 6 cups of water. Now..... place your water in your enamel pot and almost bring it to a boil. Ya know, ......when it starts to get the little bubbles. After that, quickly put your petals in and quickly flip them with your wooden spoon. Then use your spoon to remove them from your water onto the ceramic plates lined with paper towels. You should have pink water and your petals should be a lighter pink. This whole process, literally, should last less than a minute. So.... as soon as you poured your petals in, you should give them a spin & start taking them out. Got it? Inevitably you're going to lose some liquid because of the roses absorbing water. Your ceramic plates could be holding some 'juice' so....just drop it back in. I added 10 cups of sugar to my pink liquid and boiled it on a low to medium flame for about an hour and a half. During the last 10 minutes, add your beautiful petals back in. The greatest thing is that I tweaked the recipe just a little bit. In some jars, I placed fresh sprigs of mint and lavender. How great is that? Originally, we place lemon slices at the bottom of the jar to prevent sugaring. That's it! Could you believe it?
I took this picture VERY quickly. The roses let color out immediately. |
After your syrup is all cooked, you can then use a silver ladle to fill your jars. I promise, it won't turn green:) |
Here's a couple things you need to know prior to making rose syrup:
1. The petals will shrink......ALOT!
2. Because our plants only produce so many roses a day, you can refrigerate the picked ones for up to a week, ( so you can collect more)
3. Don't replace the plates and paper towels for a strainer unless it is plastic or wooden. Remember, no silver!
4. You can wait till your syrup cools off to place it in the jar, or you can do it right away. I prefer while it's hot because it will cool in the jar to a seal, & you can hear that 'pop'.
5. Have fun! Even if you end up with only one jar......your still eating petals:)
This is extremely rich & tasty. Enjoy it mixed with your teas, or placed on your crepes, & pancakes.
Happy Trails to all things sweet!
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