Lime-flower and apple jelly

Name: Lime-flower and apple jelly
Total time: 12 h 45 min
Yield: ± 4 jars of 250 ml
Ingredients: 40 g fresh lime (linden) flowers, with their bracts (± 3 large handfuls); 1 litre cloudy apple juice (freshly pressed or unfiltered); juice of 2 lemons; jam sugar (with pectin): as many grams as you have ml of juice (± 900 g)

Updated on 9 October 2026

Makes: ± 4 jars of 250 ml
Time: 45 min + 12 hrs steeping
From: Small-leaved lime

Ingredients

40 g fresh lime (linden) flowers, with their bracts (± 3 large handfuls)
1 litre cloudy apple juice (freshly pressed or unfiltered)
juice of 2 lemons
jam sugar (with pectin): as many grams as you have ml of juice (± 900 g)

Method

Pick the flowers on a dry, sunny day, when the florets have just opened. Choose clean branches without sticky honeydew, well away from busy roads. Shake out any insects.
Bring the apple juice briefly to the boil. Put the flowers in a bowl and pour the hot juice over them. Cover, leave to cool and put in the fridge overnight.
Strain the juice through a fine cloth and squeeze the flowers well. Measure the juice.
Put the juice, lemon juice and jam sugar in a large pan and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Bring to the boil and boil hard for 4 minutes (or as the packet says). Skim off the foam.
Fill hot, clean jars to the brim, close at once and turn them upside down for 5 minutes.

Storing: A year in a cool, dark place; once opened, in the fridge. Good on bread, with cheese or stirred into yoghurt.