Elderflower Syrup

About a year ago I stumbled upon a picture similar to this along with an elderflower recipe and was reminded of it when I came along some blooming elderflower trees some days ago. So I searched the web for recipies and finally gave it a try and I even prepared my second batch of syrup a few days ago.

In my recipe I measured my ingredients in average quantities as I found recipes that use a lot more sugar or lemons and acid and some that use less.
I used

10 umbels of elderflowers
1 lemon
20 g of lemon acid powder
1 kg sugar
1,5 l water

Collect the flowers, don't wash them but make sure that there are no insects on them and cut off the stems. Place the flowers in a large pot that can be covered and cut the lemon in slices. If it's unsprayed and organic you don't need to peel it. Put the lemon and the lemon acid in the pot along with the flowers. Take another big pot and boil the water in it, add sugar to the water and boil it until all the sugar is dissolved. When this is done, pour the sugar water over the elderflowers. When it's cooled down store it in a cool place and allow it to rest for 5 days, so the flavour of the elderflowers can diffuse into the syrup. The only cool place I have is the fridge and it worked very well. On the last day sieve it through a tea towel, fill the syrup in bottles and store them in a cool and dark place. (For me it's the fridge again.)
The syrup is very delicious and a sip of it mixed with sparkling water is a refreshing beverage on hot summer days. It's also very tasty with strawberries.

I used the remains to cook elderflower jelly. I boiled the flowers and the lemon together with 3/4 l of orange juice and 1 kg of jam sugar for 4 minutes and filled the mixture into glasses. I've never done anything like that before either, so I guess this could also be done with less sugar and I found recipes that used apple juice. My jelly is very sweet and yummy and I'm amazed how strong it tastes of elderflowers!