Home-grown Honeysuckle Sorbet
Honeysuckle is one of the most intoxicating fragrances of spring and summer. Blooming in early May and into June, honeysuckle fills the air with an unmistakable aroma. Being based in South Carolina, we are surrounded by honeysuckle during these late spring months. As soon as we smell it in the air, we can't wait to find these wildflowers, harvest them, and turn them into the perfect sweetener for just about everything.
We have always loved honeysuckle. In fact, our honeysuckle fragrance has been in the line longer than any other fragrance! With notes of citrus, dewy greens, wild honeysuckle, jasmine, orange flower, and floral musk, what's not to love about the scent? Garden and Gun created a honeysuckle sorbet recipe, and it provided the inspiration for our own honeysuckle sorbet!
Before you begin, it's important to set aside enough time to harvest the honeysuckle, placing it in water soon after. Honeysuckle is most fragrant at the end of the day, right as the sun is setting. We highly recommend harvesting the honeysuckle during this time and covering the flowers with water as soon as possible, in order to lock in that aroma and extract more flavor.
Yield: 1 quart of Honeysuckle sorbet
Ingredients:
4 cups freshly picked honeysuckle blossoms
6 2/3 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed orange juice
3 drops lemon juice
1. Before you begin, we highly recommend making extra for use as a syrup.
2. Harvest the honeysuckle at sunset. Pick any rip or open honeysuckle blossoms from the vine. When measuring, each cup of honeysuckle should be loosely packed.
3. Cover honeysuckle blossoms with 5 1/3 cups water and allow it to steep for at least 24 hours, or up to 3 days in the refrigerator. The container of honeysuckle should be covered by a towel or plastic wrap while it steeps.
4. While honeysuckle is steeping, make a simple syrup. This will be combined with the honeysuckle tea. To do this, combine sugar with 1 1/3 cups of water and bring to a boil.
5. Let the syrup cool and then place in the refrigerator until ready to combine with honeysuckle.
6. Combine the honeysuckle tea with the simple syrup, lemon juice, and orange juice.
7. Pour chilled mixture into an ice cream maker, following the manufacturer's instructions to churn. If you do not have an ice cream maker, follow these instructions for granita.
We hope you love it! If you give this recipe a try, let us know how it turns out by tagging us @votivo on social.
If you just want to smell the honeysuckle fragrance, you can find it here.