Lilac Sugar
Lilac Sugar is a fun project that the kids will love to help with. The season for lilacs is so short . Preserve them to use all year long.
Did you know that lilacs are actually on the edible flowers list? Yes indeed they are. If you’d like to experiment with edible flowers, make sure that you use a trusted source, like extension services because some flowers can make you very ill.
The swiftly fleeting season for lilacs just makes me want to make everything I can with them. If you have lilac bushes, you know that it’s only a few short weeks in the summer that the flowers grace us with their presence.
The fragrance of the flowers is one of the unmistakable best parts.
What you need
- lilac flowers – use only the colorful petals. Remove them from the green parts, stems, leaves and sepals (the small green part that holds the petals to the plant).
- sugar – regular granulated white sugar.
How to make it
Step One
Shake the lilac blooms to remove any dirt or small bugs.
Separate the colorful petals from the lilac blossoms, trying your best not to get any of the green parts.
Step Two
Add about ¼ of the blossoms on the bottom of a mason jar.
Pour in about ¼ of the sugar.
Repeat layering until all of the flowers and sugar are added to the jar.
Step Three
Place the lid on the jar. Shake the jar to distribute the petals among the sugar.
Let the sugar sit in a dry place or on a counter out of direct sunlight.
Let the blooms stay in the sugar for about 24 hours. Shake the jar every few hours to separate the sugar granules. The sugar will absorb some moisture from the flowers, so you want to keep it separated.
If it really starts to stick together, you can pulse it in your food processor a couple times to separate.
We’ve found that leaving the flowers in too long imparts an off taste to the sugar so remove the petals after 24 hours. Remove the dried lilac petals by sifting the sugar through a fine mesh strainer.
Pro tips
- If you’d prefer you can rinse the individual blossoms. After rinsing, dry the flower in a salad spinner. Then let the flower sit on a piece of paper towel for at least a few hours to air dry. Flowers must be very dry! Use a 1:1 ratio plain sugar to lilac sugar as a replacement.
- Use blooms that have not been sprayed with any chemicals, insecticides or inorganic fertilizers.
- Pick your blossoms one day and put them in them in water. The next day remove the petals. It is much easier and will take you less time.
- It took 2-3 individual blossoms to get ½ cup of petals but that will depend on the size of your blossoms.
- Use a sharp pair of pruners to remove blossoms.
- If sugar crystals seems to really be clumping, lay it on sheet of parchment paper and place a fan on low near it to dry it out.
- Store sugar in an air tight container in a dry place.
How to use lilac sugar
- One of our favorite ways to use it is in buttery sugar cookies. It adds a lovely floral note to the cookies. Sprinkle some on tops of cookies too.
- Use it to sweeten tea, iced tea or coffee.
- Try lemon and lilac muffins, cakes or cupcakes. It’s great for your favorite baking projects.
- Melt the sugar with hot water to make a quick lilac syrup.
- Make fun summer cocktails or mocktails. Garnish the glass with some lilac sugar.
- Makes great holiday or hostess gifts.
More lilac recipes
More specialty sugars
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I hope you enjoyed the recipe today.
Enjoy. And have fun cooking!
Lilac Sugar
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cups lilac petals
Instructions
- Shake you lilac blooms after picking to remove any bugs or dirt. If you'd like you can rinse them in cool water.½ cups lilac petals
- Remove the purple or white petals from the small green sepals that hold them to the branch. (See photo in article above.)
- Pour about ¼ of the flowers in a pint jar.
- Add ¼ of the sugar. Repeat layering the flowers and sugar.1 cup sugar
- Shake well to distribute the lilacs throughout the sugar.
- Shake every few hours. The sugar will soak up some of the moisture from the petals so you want to shake them so that the sugar doesn't clump up.
- Leave it for 24 hours to infuse the lilac flavor into the sugar.
See all of my favorite tools and gift ideas on my New Amazon Store!Check out Binky’s Amazon Store!Notes
- If you’d prefer you can rinse the individual blossoms. After rinsing, dry the flower in a salad spinner. Then let the flower sit on a piece of paper towel for at least a few hours to air dry. Flowers must be very dry! Use a 1:1 ratio plain sugar to lilac sugar as a replacement.
- Use blooms that have not been sprayed with any chemicals, insecticides or inorganic fertilizers.
- Pick your blossoms one day and put them in them in water. The next day remove the petals. It is much easier and will take you less time.
- It took 2-3 individual blossoms to get ½ cup of petals but that will depend on the size of your blossoms.
- Use a sharp pair of pruners to remove blossoms.
- If sugar crystals seems to really be clumping, lay it on sheet of parchment paper and place a fan on low near it to dry it out.
- Store sugar in an air tight container in a dry place.
- One of our favorite ways to use it is in buttery sugar cookies. It adds a lovely floral note to the cookies. Sprinkle some on tops of cookies too.
- Use it to sweeten tea, iced tea or coffee.
- Try lemon and lilac muffins, cakes or cupcakes. It’s great for your favorite baking projects.
- Melt the sugar with hot water to make a quick lilac syrup.
- Make fun summer cocktails or mocktails. Garnish the glass with some lilac sugar.
- Makes great holiday or hostess gifts.
I tried this and my lilacs seem to have a sort of alcoholic smell, I wonder if they have begun to ferment. Do you have any insight?
Is this after steeping them overnight? Or is it the blooms themselves?