This recipe was a series of happy accidents. It’s elderberry month with the Plant Wonder Collective and initially I was pretty stumped for what to make other than my usual elderberry syrup. Despite the best efforts of my local catbirds, we had a nice harvest of fresh elderberries this year so I concluded that I wanted to use them fresh rather than drying them like I usually do. I settled on old fashioned elderberry jam, but flavored it the same way I would typically flavor my elderberry syrup so it had some of the same health benefits while being more appealing to my kiddos. So I added honey and all the usual herbs and spices to my jam mixture. (click on the link above for the full syrup recipe) It’s been super rainy and cold here lately and a medicinal treat was just want we needed!
Now back to those accidents… accident one was that I just threw the herbs in the pot. As it became jammy it got super sticky. Elderberries are very seedy so it became almost impossible to tell what was a woody bit of clove or astragalus root and what was a seed. It was kind of a sticky mess so I ended up straining the whole thing, which worked fine, but the seeds are like half the bulk of the finished jam and they add a crunch that I love. (The kids however, hated it…) I ended up picking out some of the seeds and adding them back in, but I would recommend putting your herbs in cheesecloth- at least the woody ones anyway. My kids preferred the less seedy jam though so overall it was a win?
Even more happy accident number two: in order to pick the seeds out of the sticky mess of strained seeds and herbs I watered it down a little. This let me pick out my seeds and discard the woody bits, but when I added the seeds back to the strained jam I had to cook everything again to get rid of the extra water. I promptly forgot about the pot right after putting it on the stove. It was probably only 15 minutes before I realized what I had done, but it was enough time to cook down past jam stage to into what I can only describe as elderberry caramel. Served over ice cream it’s one of the best things I have ever tasted. It’s dark and caramel-y but also fruity and spicy. With the creaminess of the ice cream and the crunch from the seeds– it’s a perfect fall treat.
Elderberry Syrup Jam/ Caramel
Ingredients:
- 4 cups fresh elderberries
- 2 TBS white vinegar
- 2 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- Your preferred elderberry syrup herbs tied up in cheesecloth or muslin (I like cinnamon, cloves, astragalus root and rosehips see my full list here)
Method:
In a large saucepan combine all ingredients.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.
Boil, stirring frequently until mixture thickens. (Use the freezer test to confirm)
Once your jam has gelled ladle into clean canning jars. I don’t properly can this because it’s a small batch, I just keep it in the fridge. If you scale up the recipe and want to can it, leave a 1/4 in headspace and process for 10 minutes. (For more on canning procedure check out the canning bible the Ball Blue Book)
If you want to go beyond jam and make an elderberry caramel, just keep cooking! Gelling temp should be around 220 degrees fahrenheit and soft ball candy is 235 degrees fahrenheit so while I didn’t check the temp at the time because I was panicking about forgetting my jam, I suspect that’s about where it was. It became very thick when stirred and I don’t think the little bit of extra water was necessary to get it to this caramel-y stage.