Rosehip syrup

Rosehip syrup is a wonderfully vibrant cordial that many people will never have tasted, which makes it the ideal drink to serve to your grandchildren as an old-fashioned treat.

Part of the reason it has fallen out of favour is because it seems to be getting harder and harder to find wild rosehips. If you can’t track any down online shops such as Amazon now sells them dried so even the most urban dweller can enjoy this country staple!

Ingredients

• 500g fresh rosehips, or 250g of dried
• 600g granulated white sugar
• 1.5 litres water

Makes around 2lt of cordial

Method

1. Wash the rosehips and chop them in a food processor.

2. If you are using dried rosehips, leave them to soak in water overnight, reserving the rosehip-infused water for use in step 3.

3. Either way, you now boil them in the water for 15 minutes. Take off the heat and leave to steep for two hours with the lid on.

4. Strain the pulp through a sterilized jelly bag over a period of a couple of hours.

5. Either rinse out the used jelly bag and use it again, or take a new one. Line it with a double thickness of muslin and strain the liquid for a second time to get rid of all the little hairs from around the seeds. This will only take a minute or two as most of them will have been caught already.

6. Pour into a saucepan and add the sugar. Warm to dissolve.

7. Bottle when cool. It will keep for up to three months on the shelf, although it should be stored in the fridge after opening.

Variations

You can serve the rosehip syrup as a cordial or pour it over pancakes, waffles, ice cream and sponge puddings to liven up an otherwise standard pudding.

Try this delicious rose cake recipe

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