Thursday, June 2, 2011

Rose Petal Jelly

Lynn at Woodridge Country Living did a post a couple of days ago on making Rose Petal Jelly. Since my two roses were in full bloom, I thought that I would give it a try. I have a white rose and a red rose. The recipe says to use your most fragrant roses to make the jelly. Wouldn't you know it....my white roses smell heavenly and the red roses have basically no fragrance at all! I decided to use mostly white rose petals and add some of the red rose petals for color.

Rose Petal Jelly

· 1 1/2 cups Rose petals, tightly packed
· 2 1/4 cups water
· 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
· 3 1/2 cups sugar (preferably white sugar)
· 3 oz packet liquid pectin


Gather fresh Rose petals to measure 1 1/2 cups tightly packed. Rinse petals and pat dry. Place petals in large pot and bruise petals so the scent and color can be extracted.

Add 2 1/4 cups of water to the petals in the pot and heat to boil. Turn down heat and simmer for several minutes, making sure the petals impart their color in the water. More than likely, the water will appear somewhat grey — the color will brighten with the addition of some lemon juice.

I used a potato masher and mashed the petals to extract the color and fragrance as the petals simmered.
After the Rose petals have simmered for a few minutes, remove from heat. Using a fine sieve, strain the petals from the liquid.  Discard the petals and measure 1 3/4 cups of the distilled liquid for the jelly. Return the liquid to the pot, then add 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice and stir. The petal water will brighten significantly.

This is the liquid before I added the lemon juice...it's beautiful!
Add the sugar and stir to dissolve, then heat to boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Add liquid pectin and return to hard boil. Then allow jelly to boil for 1 minute while stirring continually.


Remove from heat and ladle jelly into 4 sterilized half-pint jars leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Add sterilized lids and rings. Process in water bath for 5 minutes.


Yield: about 4 half pints

The jelly turned out beautiful and the flavor is absolutely heavenly! We decided that this will be our special unusual jelly of the season to give as gifts for the Holidays. I am going to make one more batch in a few days.

The yield was almost 5 half pints. The almost full half pint is our frig. Please note: Do not use any flowers that have been treated with any chemicals!

20 comments:

  1. I have not made this before but have enjoyed eating some (one of my older aunts used to make this occassionally). The flavor can be so light and beautiful and the jars are festive looking with the pretty coloring.

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  2. It looks so beautiful I am sure anyone would love to receive that as a gift. I have never had it, how does it taste?

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  3. Laura, We were surprised how flavorful the jelly tasted. It must have been from the white roses.

    Jane, Lynn said that it tasted like a light grape jelly. This batch was very flavorful...kind of like a light grape with a rose flavor. There isn't much lemon juice in it...so, the lemon doesn't take away from the flavor like it does in some jellies and jams. I think it would be great served with cheese. We serve jams and jellies with cheeses as appetizers when we have company.

    I am a big jam & jelly maker and we always give canned gifts from the garden at Christmas. That's basically all we give except for my grandson of course!

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  4. Thank you! Thank you! I wanted to do a bit of canning and wanted to do something unique. So, thanks to you I'm heading out to the yard to gather rose petals! Yummy! Your jelly looks like stained glass! Beautiful.

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  5. You know what that jelly needs? Some vodka.

    And some bacon.

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  6. You're right! The picture of "before the lemon juice was added" is beautiful! What a neat thing to make! Lynda is right! It does look like stained glass. Excellent work!

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  7. Lynda, You are very welcome. I noticed when I was posting that recipe said to dry the petals. I just rinsed them off.

    IG, I agree....vodka is good in just about everything! Bacon...I'm not so sure

    Thanks VP, Last year I made dandelion jelly. It was also very good. I think that we like this better though.

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  8. We don't have roses this year, but we should by next year. We'll have to give this recipe a try. It sounded good when Lynn posted the recipe, and now that you've made it too it sounds even better!

    We're planting some rugosa roses for hips, but they will be fragrant and colorful as well.

    OTOH, I am still trying to find time to make some homemade mustard. I have the seeds, I just need to quit playing in the garden so much and spend some time in the kitchen!

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  9. That sounds great Robin. I also recently saw a recipe for lilac jelly but didn't have the patience when my lilacs were at peak to pick off all the little flowers needed to make it. Maybe next year.

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  10. Villager, Those roses will probably make a wonderful jelly.

    Maybe you should wait until the fall to start making mustard. The Spicey Brown was everyone's favorite. I'm going to make some more mustards in the fall. I'm going to have to work on the yellow mustard recipe a bit.

    Emily, Lilac jelly would take quite a bit of time to take all those little flowers off....and you always need more then you think. You wouldn't believe how many dandelions it takes to make a batch of dandelion jelly.

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  11. Very pretty! I have never tasted rose jelly but sure would not be afraid to! I can see why it would be your 'special' one and make lovely gifts.

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  12. My roses are in bloom! I might have to try this out. Thanks for posting this.

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  13. APGal, I was so surprised that the color was such a beautiful red. I used mostly white petals. I hope that the second batch is just as pretty!

    Nartaya, I think it's fun to try unusual jelly recipes.

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  14. I'm dying to know what it tastes like! Is it sort of like Turkish rose water? I'll have to try this one of these days....after I buy some rose bushes.

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  15. That would be an interesting one to make next year or the year after when my rose bush grows up a bit. Supposedly my pink rose has a strong scent, but I'll see.

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  16. Ohhh, I think that is awesome! It would be great to make now for our holiday giving. Thanks so much for sharing. I'd never heard of this!
    ~~Lori

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  17. What a great idea to use rose petals!! Awesome!

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  18. Thomas, I have never tastes Turkish rose water..so, I can't compare the taste. I think that rose bushes would definitely be helpful :)

    Daphne, It really doesn't take too many roses to make the jelly. Maybe next year you will have enough to try it.

    Lori, I thought it was an interesting idea and it turned out wonderful!

    Holly, The jelly is defintely awesome!

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  19. Robin, I had read about this on Lynn's blog and now yours. As hubby said, we'll have some next year. Can't wait to try this. Yum!

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  20. Wow, I've not heard of rose petal jelly before, but it certainly sounds interesting. The color in the jars is just beautiful. Nice work!

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