Peony Jelly

Our 2020 journey into floral jellies continues. 

Today we made peony jelly for the first time. 

Seamus loved being given the go ahead to clip the flower heads off the peonies that had fallen over.  He was partial to the rose coloured ones but, in the end, we decided to make two separate batches (white peonies and pink peonies) in case they tasted different.  It is lucky that we did. 

After stuffing the petals into pitchers and pouring boiling water over top to make "peony tea", we let everything steep for an hour before tasting. The pink peony tea was noticeably more bitter than the white peony tea. We opted to forgo the pink and bet on the white; it would not be as pretty but it would hopefully be delicious.

Recipe: White Peony Jelly

Ingredients

Petals from 10 large white peony blossoms
Boiling water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups sugar
1 box no sugar pectin

Instructions

1) Remove the petals from 10 large white peony blossoms.  Discard all greens (leaves and stems). 

2) Place petals in a pitcher and pour boiling water over top to the 2 L mark.  Let steep for 1 hour or until you like the taste of the "peony tea".  Strain.

3) Mix 4 cups of peony tea with 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1 box of no sugar pectin.  Bring mixture to a boil.
4) Add 2 cups of sugar.  Boil mixture hard for 3 minutes.

5) Fill sterilized jars leaving a 1/4 inch head space and process in water bath for 10 minutes.

We are happy to report that this jelly tastes really good.  Ian likened it to the flavour of Turkish Delight.  Even better, peony petals are much easier to separate from the stems than either dandelions or lilacs - woohoo!  White peony jelly is a keeper.  I am so glad that we gave this one a try!