Peony Jelly

We enjoy trying new recipes each year. This spring we tried a new flower jelly - peony jelly. We have made dandelion and lilac jelly in the past and enjoyed them immensely. We had peonies in our yard, so when I saw a recipe for peony jelly, I decided this would be one of our new recipes to try this year. It fits well with our "harvest what you have" mindset. We had peonies, so why not?


I am notorious for finding a recipe online and forgetting to bookmark it. Sadly, that is exactly what I did with the peony recipe we used. However, the recipe we used was similar to this one from Daily Dish Recipes and this one from Practical Self Reliance.

First, I picked four large blossoms. I picked out any leaves and rinsed them well to remove any potential bugs and dirt. Four blossoms gave me almost eight cups of petals.


I then put the blossoms in a half-gallon jar and covered them with boiling water. I let it cool on the counter for a bit.


After ten minutes or so, the water was already beginning to turn pink.


I let it finish cooling before moving it to the refrigerator to infuse overnight. Some recipes call for infusing the petals for 10 minutes, but we found with our dandelion jelly that the longer you infuse it, the stronger the floral flavor is. Since we like flavorful jelly, we opted to let it infuse longer.

The next day, I took out the infused peony water, strained the petals, and proceeded with the recipe. I added the water to the pot, stirred in the pectin and lemon juice, then brought it to a boil. Our peonies are dark pink and I really wanted the jelly to stay dark pink, so I added just a touch of raspberry juice. (We once had the experience of our lovely lilac jelly turning from lavender to yellow when we canned it, so we added the juice as a precaution.)


Once it came to a rolling boil, I added the sugar, cooked the jelly for 2 minutes, poured it into hot, sterilized jars, and sealed with rings and lids. I then processed the jars in a boiling water bath. 


The jelly turned out to be the most beautiful dark pink color. 

The taste is reminiscent of peaches and berries, with a bit of an earthy undertone. It is definitely unique. Our eldest son is a big fan already, so we are calling this recipe a win.

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