Lilac and Hibiscus Jelly

Note: When making lilac jelly, make sure you’re getting blossoms from a “common lilac” as other types, such as the Persian lilac, are said to not be safe for consumption by humans or pets.

Yesterday morning I started with the lilacs that had been steeping overnight and made lilac jelly. The recipe I use for pretty much any jelly that his juice or infused liquid is 4 cups of the juice/infused liquid, 1 package of pectin powder (or about 3 T. if you’re buying it in bulk), 4 cups sugar.

For the pectin, it’s $2.10/oz. if you buy it in the box at Walmart (at the price it is right now – $3.68 per 1.75 oz. box). They do have a six pack that’s a tad less expensive but I buy mine at Nuts.com and it’s currently $8.99 for a 16 oz. bag. That’s .56/oz. Nuts.com currently has free shipping on orders over $59 and there’s so much good stuff there, plus I LOVE their boxes. They always make me smile. I try to place an order with them in early March and again in late September. That way, the products are not being shipped during the hottest times of the year. I will almost always order two pounds of this pectin in March. One of the one pound bags is enough to make about 9 batches of jelly using 3 T. per batch.

By the way, the double acting baking powder from Nuts.com has no aluminum. You get one pound for $5.99. That’s just a few cents more than it is at Walmart but the WM closest to me doesn’t carry aluminum free baking powder.

Anyway . . no baking powder in jelly . . at least not that I’ve ever used.

The jar on the left is the lilac jelly and the jar on the right is the hibiscus.

For the lilac, I pulled all the blossoms off – any green parts will make the jelly bitter, measured out 4 cups of blossoms, rinsed them well, then covered them with 4 cups of simmering water and left them soaking overnight. This morning I drained the juice through triple layer cheesecloth just to be sure and catch any debris or grit that may have slipped in, added the 3 T. pectin, brought that to a boil, added 4 cups of sugar, brought that to a boil and let it boil for one minute. I processed the filled jars for 10 minutes in a water bath canner.

For the hibiscus jelly, I love hibiscus tea so I made a tea using dried hibiscus blossom, used 4 cups of the tea, and proceeded as I had done for the lilac jelly. I ended up with 7 half pints of lilac jelly and 8 half pints of the hibiscus jelly.