Rose Flavored Jelly

I normally only make jam...i find jelly to be too fussy. You have to strain and spend a lot of time on how it LOOKS As opposed to how it tastes...and I generally find that annoying. However, in the case of roses, violets, and lavender...I make an exception and create jelly instead.

Strange flavors to some, I know, but I love them...as do many of my friends and family.

Of course, different roses bloom at different times. ..so, if you decide you want to make it you have to wait for the roses to bloom and then...once they do you have to be quick about it.

My favorite rose is one in my mom's yard. It blooms from the end of May to the beginning of June. And then it is done. Sad really. But it smells so heavenly it is perfectly fine that it only last a few weeks. 

So, for years I have been trying to keep its wonderfulness around longer. I made perfume out of it with vodka.. but I find that I use it all far too quickly! But then I came across a very old recipe for rose flavored jelly...with my love of making jam...it was a quick decision to make. 

The recipe is simple and it works great! (I found it on pintrest):

Gather 2 cups of rose petals. Make sure you use petals from roses that have not been treated with chemicals. 

Next, rinse the petals thoroughly. I usually do this twice just to be sure they are very clean.

Then, in a heat safe and non reactive bowl, pour 2 cups of boiling water over your rose petals. 

You will need to let the petals steep for at least 30 minutes or for up to 24 hours. I let mine steep for 24 hours as I wanted it to taste as much like roses as possible. 

Once the petals have steeped for as long as you wish you strain the petals from the liquid. The petals will have lost nearly all their color at this point. It looks very strange. 

After you have all the liquid in a bowl strain the liquid again through a fine strainer...just to get anything that might have slipped by. I like to use a very fine tea strainer--but that is just because I generally have that handy.

You will now have 24 hours to make your jelly. ..if you keep the liquid in the refrigerator. You could freeze the liquid in ice trays. This would give you a longer time in which to wait to make the jelly. I personally don't so the freeze me this mainly because the one time I did it I just used all the ice to flavor my water for several weeks...which was delightdul, but resulted in a lack of rose flavored jelly.

When it comes time to make the jelly you will need your two cups rose liquid, one 3oz package of liquid pectin, a half cup lemon juice (or lime if you prefer), and 4 cups of sugar  (I like to use vanilla sugar myself) and one tablespoon of butter (the butter is an "old farm wife" jam trick my mom taught me.)

Put the sugar, lemon juice, and rose liquid in a stainless steel (or other non reactive) pot on the stove, turn on high heat, and stir until the proto-jelly reaches a rolling boil you cannot stir down. 

Cut the pectin packets (I use certo...it sets up very well) and add to the proto-jelly. Stir for another 2 minutes. It is going to be foamy...very foamy. Keep stirring and add about a tablespoon of butter. 

Continue to stir. 

Once the two minutes have elapsed turn off the heat and continue to stir until all the foam is gone. (Most of the foam will be taken care of with the lack of heat, the rest of the foam will be taken care of as you stir because of the butter you added.)

Then jar and seal as desired. 

It is very tasty in my opinion...even if it doesn't taste exactly how they smell. 

Happy crafting!

Seckmea