Herbal Flower and Rose Syrup

Do you have a recipe that includes rose water or rose syrup and you’d like to make your own?  Have you gone foraging and now have edible and herbal flower specimens like honeysuckle and clover that you’d like to use?  Here is a simple recipe for an edible flower syrup that you can use in so many different ways. 

Common Edible Herbal Flowers

This recipe is made with rose petals, clover flowers and honeysuckle blossoms.  However, there are any number of edible herbal flowers you can use.  Here’s a quick list of common herbal flowers (petals are typically used in cooking):

• roses
• violets
• clover
• honeysuckle
• borage
• calendula
• scented geranium
• nasturtiums
• lavender
• phlox
• sunflowers
• squash
• chive
• dandelion
• forsythia

For ideas on how to use these herbal flowers simply click on each one and it will open to a new page with a recipe or tutorial. 

Herbal Flower Rose Syrup Recipe

Use this combination of rose petals, honeysuckle blooms and cover flowers to make a subtle and sweet herbal flower syrup for baking or Saturday morning pancakes. 

I have a lovely coconut macaroon recipe that calls for rose syrup. The last time I made it, I added scented geranium (pelargoniums) and lemon verbena.  You can use both the leaves and blooms of scented geranium in this macaroon recipe, or this herbal syrup recipe.

Here’s a quick tutorial video and the recipe is below:

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe

Herbal Flower Rose Syrup

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time-ish

10 mins

 

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: flower, foraged food, herbal

Serving Suggestion: 6

Author: Tessa Zundel

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Rose petals
• 1/2 Cup Clove blossoms
• 1/4 Cup Honeysuckle blooms
• 1/2-1 Cup Water
• 1 Cup Sugar - I used erythritol Organic cane, xylitol and even raw sugar would work, though it will give the syrup a caramel color.
• 1/2 tsp Food dye, optional

Instructions

1. Snip or pinch green matter from the bottom of the clover, roses and honeysuckle. Use only petals of roses; remove pistils with pollen that can lend a bitter flavor to the syrup. If you want the pollen included for its health benefits, leave the pistils.

2. Place blossoms in an heavy bottomed sauce pot and just cover with water. Gently stir the petals to weigh them down into the water. Cover pot with a lid.

3. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Allow to the blooms to steep covered in the hot water for at least 10 minutes. This step basically creates a blossom tea.

4. Strain the spent blossoms out and place the blossom tea back into the pot. Add the sugar.

5. Stir frequently as you heat the burner to medium high heat, melting the sugar.

6. Simmer well for 10 minutes and remove from heat.

7. Add color, if desired. Stir well.

8. Use immediately or store in an air tight container in the fridge. Use within one month. The syrup may crystallize at it sits in the fridge over time. To melt the crystals, simply reheat before use.

You can leave the syrup a pale blush color or use a natural dye to give it a darker color.  This is the brand of natural, plant-based dyes we use:

Uses for Herbal Flower Syrup

Before you even process these flowers into syrup, you may want to know about all the other amazing things you can do with them.  For health and wellness, as well as other culinary uses, please visit these posts:

1. From Homespun Seasonal Living, here is Using White Clover for Food and Medicine.
2. Please click here for a similar article from HSL but on the uses for honeysuckle.
3. From Joybilee Farm here is an article on Roses for Food and Medicine.

Once you’ve made it, here are several ways you can use this herbal flower syrup:

• As a pancake or ice cream topping
• Mixed into beverages to add flavor and sweetness, as in flavoring homemade sodas
• Added to morning cereal, yogurt or oatmeal
• Topped on sweet breads or other baked treats, etc.

You can also use your rose syrup in this recipe for Rose Saffron Rose Saffron Lollipops from Desserts First Girl.  (I omit the corn syrup and just use my rose syrup in its place.)

Rose water and syrup are both common ingredients called for in Asian and Indian dessert recipes.  The last time we celebrated Diwali (an Indian fall festival of lights), we made this recipe from  Easy Cooking With Molly for Gulab Kalakand.  (FYI, I substituted the canned condensed milk for this homemade version.  I also used full fat ricotta.) 

If you’d like more ideas on festival foods and fun, please sign up to learn about the release of our newest book, Homestead Holidays!  Following the seasons and the calendar year, there’s something to celebrate every month as we work to build up our homesteads and our families.  Be the first to learn about the book’s release and get special offers and freebies!