Its Elderberry season in our country garden. We have a few bushes and I have to come up with many ways to use up the harvest. This is probably one of the best elderberry compote recipes, I have come across. I substituted cinnamon with vanilla bean. Elderberry compote recipe is easy to make and isn’t as tricky as Elderberry jam, since the compote doesn’t need to set.
In my previous posts on Elderberry, I have already stated the health benefits of Elderberry. I am all for the taste of a recipe and if its good for health, its great. I don’t know if adding sugar is healthy, but sugar is the only way to go for long term food preservation.
This tasty elderberry compote recipe requires 2 days of prep time. But believe me the end result is worth it. The longer prep time is required to extract the maximum flavors from the berries. In order to do that, we will be curing the berries overnight with sugar and the other seasonings. This longer prep time helps to infuse all the flavors and are completely absorbed into the compote mixture before cooking.
Tips to make Elderberry Compote
- Choose fresh and fully ripe berries for this recipe.
- Remove all the stalks and the leaves completely.
- You can substitute vanilla with cinnamon too.
- To preserve longer, its better to do a water bath canning.
- For best flavors, soak the berries in sugar and the seasoning overnight.
- For canning, leave 1.5 cm space at the top.
How to make Elderberry Compote
Tools you will need
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Heavy bottom Pot
Mixing bowl
Wooden cutting board
Ingredients needed
500 gms of ripe fresh elderberries stalks removed
2 strips of lemon zest
1 split vanilla bean cut into bigger strips
250 gms of sugar
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1 stick of cinnamon (optional) or a teaspoon of powder
Method
- Remove the ripe berries from their stalks with a fork. Remove the leaves too.
- Wash the berries thoroughly.
- In a mixing bowl mix the elderberries, lemon zest, vanilla bean.
- If you are using cinnamon stick, remove the stick before cooking.
- Add the sugar and cover the bowl and let it sit overnight.
- Cook the mixture next day in a heavy bottom pot add lemon juice to the berry mixture and cook over medium heat.
- Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to low.
- Once it starts bubbling pour into sterilized glass jars. If you want to store longer do water bath canning.
How to serve Elderberry Compote
Elderberry compote can be served in muesli, yogurt or on custards. We like to serve compote with Raclette cheese because it marries well with the strong taste. On the hand, you can eat it plain by itself.
Additionally, you can use the compote on fruit pies or for a wet cake filling. We also like to spread the compote on homemade breads.
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Water Bath Canning Fill the jars leaving about 1.5 cm space at the top. Clean the rims with a dry cloth and then cover the lids. Place the jars in a hot water bath and make sure that the jars are well covered in water. Boil the jars for 15 minutes.
Ingredients
Instructions
