Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Lemon Verbena Jelly

I love lemons ~
 the scent, the flavor, that happy yellow color, 
EVERYTHING! 
 I won't have lemons to harvest for a few more months
 but I will have the next best thing, 
lemon verbena.

My lemon verbena plant got a little crazy in the herb garden, so I decided to giver her a trim and make some jelly with the fragrant leaves (thank you PINTEREST for the idea!).


I used the exact same recipe to make this jelly 
that I did for my rose petal jelly :

2 cups of packed lemon verbena leaves
3 cups of water
juice of one lemon
1 box of powdered pectin
4 cups of sugar

Start by gathering and rinsing your leaves.  
Place the leaves in a saucepan and add 3 cups of water.  Bring to a boil and remove from heat.  Allow this tea to steep for 10 minutes then strain into a large measuring cup.  If you don't have exactly three cups of liquid when you're done, add water.


Add the juice of one lemon and dissolve 
the powdered pectin into the mixture.


Return this mixture to the saucepan, and on the highest heat possible, bring to a rolling boil while stirring continuously.  Add the sugar all at once and bring back to a rolling boil.  When you get to the rolling boil, stir constantly for two minutes.  Remove from heat and ladle into hot, sterilized jars.  Process in a water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes six half pints.

I have to be honest, 
I thought this would taste like lemon Pledge!

I was wrong.

This is the lovliest, lightest flavored jelly.  
It has just a hint of floral taste, 
and then deeper tones of honey and lemon.
  
IT IS DIVINE!

Now to go search Pinterest 
to find a scone recipe!

2 comments:

Julia said...

Thank you for this recipe. It doesn't taste like lemon pledge at all. It is delicious! I did change the order of adding the ingredients to make it suit my usual jelly making routine. I added the sugar first then added the pectin once it hit boil. That was it, the only thing I changed. It set well, has a lovely amber jewel toned color, and tastes divine. It's def a pin worthy recipe. Thanks again!

Julia said...

Thank you for this recipe. It doesn't taste like lemon pledge at all. It's delicious! I did make changes in the order I added the ingredients to fit my normal jelly making routine. I added the sugar first, then added the pectin last. That's the only thing I changed, the order. It set well, has a lovely amber jewel color, and tastes divine. It's certainly a pin worthy recipe. Thank you again for this. It's a keeper.