How to Make Redbud Jelly

Here’s a bright and colorful springtime jelly recipe, made with the edible flowers of the Eastern Redbud tree, Cercis canadensis.

Step 1: Picking Flowers

Pick fully-opened redbud flowers, making sure to collect fresh, brightly-colored flowers off the tree. Try not to use faded or wilted redbuds in your jelly.

Destem the flowers with your fingers. It’s fairly easy, if a bit time-consuming- just twist the flowers right off the stems. Clusters of flowers can be destemmed all at once. Discard stems, save the flowers.

You’ll need 2 cups of destemmed redbud flowers to make one batch of redbud jelly.

Step 2: Making Redbud Tea

Floral jellies are made by infusing flowers into a tea, which is then used in the jelly recipe.

This takes about 24 hours to infuse, so make sure that you pick your redbuds and make your tea one day before you want to make your jelly.

To make redbud tea, you will need:

• 2 cups of redbud flowers, destemmed
• 3 cups of water

Place the flowers in a large heat-safe container or bowl. Heat the 3 cups of water to boiling, and pour boiling water over the redbud flowers.

Stir, and cover container loosely. Steep for 24 hours, moving the container of tea to the refrigerator after 2 hours.

The next day, once steeping is finished, strain. Make sure to squeeze out the tea from the redbuds with your hands so you get it all! You should end up with 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups of pink redbud tea.

Use tea immediately to make jelly, or freeze it for later use. Frozen tea is good for up to 3 or 4 months in the freezer. Melt frozen redbud tea down into a liquid again before using to make jelly.

Step 3: Making Redbud Jelly

Prepare a water bath canner and jars for canning, so they’ll be ready to use as soon as your jelly is done. This recipe fills 4 half-pint jars.

To make redbud jelly, you will need:

• 2 1/2 cups redbud tea
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 pack Sure Jell low or no sugar powdered pectin (pink box, 1.75 oz)
• 2 1/2 cups white cane sugar (alternative sweeteners may change set or color of jelly; reducing sugar may also cause trouble with setting up, as this is already a reduced-sugar recipe.)

OPTIONAL- 1/2 tsp of butter, used at any point during the cooking process to reduce foaming.

How to cook redbud jelly

1. Into a 6-8 quart stockpot, pour the redbud tea and lemon juice. Stir to combine. The lemon juice will brighten the color of the juice as it mixes in. Set aside.
2. Measure 2 1/2 cups of sugar into a bowl. Remove 1/4 cup of sugar from this, and put it in its own, separate bowl.
3. To the separated 1/4 cup of sugar, add the packet of powdered pectin. Mix to combine. Add this mixed pectin-sugar blend to the redbud tea and lemon juice mixture in the stockpot, and stir till combined.
4. Set pot on a burner set to high heat, and bring to a rolling boil while stirring constantly with a spoon or whisk. Once it’s reached that point, add all the remaining sugar all at once, continuing to stir all the while. The jelly will stop boiling for a moment- return it to a full, rolling boil.
5. Once returned to a full, rolling boil again, boil the jelly for exactly 1 minute. Continue to stir constantly as this happens. The hot jelly will boil up significantly and can be at risk of overflowing here. Make sure you’re using a large enough pot to keep it contained! This is also where you may want to add the small amount of butter to help reduce foaming.
6. After one minute has passed, remove pot of jelly from heat.
7. Jelly will rapidly start trying to set once the pot’s been removed from the burner. Ladle or pour the hot jelly into hot, sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace at top.
8. Wipe rims of jelly jars clean with a damp rag, removing any splashes or smears of sticky jelly that could cause problems with sealing.
9. Secure lids and rings on jars, and process jelly in a water bath canner for 10 minutes.
10. After processing, remove jars from water bath canner. Set on towels or dishcloths to cool. Let jars sit undisturbed for 12-24 hours.

Remove rings from jars to help prevent rusting, and check lids to make sure they formed a proper seal. Successfully canned and sealed redbud jelly has a shelf-life of 1 year.

Store opened jars of jelly in the refrigerator, and use within 3 weeks of opening.