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We are reaching the end of lilac season here. The dark purple ones I used for my previous recipes are almost all gone but there are still other variations of bushes with different colors around. I was contemplating doing another lilac recipe while there was still a chance so I picked some. I was a little scarred after my first experience working with lilacs and decided I would change it up. This time I wanted to do something fun that just showcased the beauty of the flowers and allowed me to use the lilac sugar and syrup to give a little flavor. A beautiful recipe by Nami over at Just One Cookbook of milk pudding with cherry blossoms caught my eye. I was inspired to try something similar but with lilac blossoms!

 

This is where my experimenting began. I knew I wanted to do coconut pudding, not just plain milk, so that change was straight forward. What was more difficult was deciding on how to do the lilac jelly on top. I wanted to impart some lilac flavor in this jelly. I decided to experiment (This is the “note above” I reference in the recipe below!) with 3 different technics of imparting flavor:

1. Lilac Infusion – Back when I first thought of working with lilacs I was considering making lilac jelly. The recipe that interested me the most was from The 3 Foragers. In that recipe they made an infusion by pouring boiling water over the lilacs and allowing it to sit 8 hours or overnight then using this water to make the jelly. I poured 1/2 cup boiling water over 1/2 cup lilacs and sat mine for 12 hours, mostly because that is when I had time to cook (scientific right ^^). I then used this “infusion” as the 1/2 cup of water in the recipe.
2. Lilac Simple Syrup – I had already made lilac simple syrup previously. I took 4 tablespoons of simple syrup and added it to 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water. This became the 1/2 cup water and 2 tablespoons sugar. (Yeah the math isn’t exactly perfect because water boils off making the simple syrup…but oh well). Don’t have simple syrup on hand? Bring 3/4 cup water to a boil, add 3/4 cup lilac flowers and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain out flowers and use this water as the water in the recipe below.
3. Combination of both – Make a lilac infusion as in #1. Once it is complete bring it to a boil (soaking flowers included!) and simmer for 10 minutes. Use as 1/2 cup water in recipe. If you have less than 1/2 a cup, add more water.

After sugar was added in #1 and #3 (and #2 if you do a boil method), following recipe directions, the results were:

1. Lilac Infusion = Light floral, lilac flavor. No real bitterness to speak of. Very light color.
2. Lilac Simple Syrup = Floral but also fairly bitter. More musky, but still pretty light purple color.
3. Combination = Much darker color, almost greenish purple? Very floral but also bitter.

Verdict: We preferred the lilac infusion (#1) the best! It had a very nice light, floral flavor and was not bitter which I thought would be best with the pudding. I wish it had a little more color to stand out against the white, but I chose flavor over looks (I thought #2 looked the best, but the lilacs in that simple syrup were darker purple. The lilac infusion might be more purple with darker lilacs). This experiment made me really excited to try making lilac jelly, but it is the end of lilac season now so maybe next year!

 

Aren’t they super pretty! I am so happy with how they turned out and, without doing the long experiment I did, were super easy and fast (if you don’t count fridge and infusion time). I am not sure how much I taste the floral of the lilac over the coconut but it is still really fun. The perfect small dessert or sweet midday snack with some tea!

Lilac Coconut Milk Pudding

Inspired by Just One Cookbook and Thirsty For Tea

Coconut Milk Pudding:
4 tsp (10 g) gelatin*
4 tbs hot water
½ cup (80 g) sugar (I used my lilac sugar)
½ cup (120 g) coconut milk
½ cup(120 g) milk
½ cup(120 g) heavy cream

Lilac Jelly Topping:
2 tsp (5 g) gelatin*
3 tbs hot water
½ cup (120 g) lilac water (see note above)
2 tbs granulated sugar (see note above)
15-30 fresh lilac blossoms, washed
red and blue food coloring for color (optional)

1. Combine gelatin and hot water in a small bowl. Stir until gelatin is fully dissolved. If it does not fully dissolved microwave it for 15 seconds and stir again. Repeat if necessary.
2. Combine sugar, coconut milk, and milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves then stir occasionally until milk mixture begins to simmer. Do not boil.
3. Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in gelatin then stir in heavy cream.
4. Pour mixture through a fine sieve to remove any lumps and, in my case, old flowers.
5. Ladle mixture into individual serving cups. I used 4 oz jelly jars and the amount fit evenly into 5 jars.
6. Put in refrigerator until pudding sets, at least two hours.

 

7. Do not proceed to this step until your coconut milk pudding has set – As with the milk pudding, combine gelatin and hot water in a small bowl. Stir until gelatin is fully dissolved. If it does not fully dissolved microwave it for 15 seconds and stir again. Repeat if necessary.
8. Combine sugar and water** in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolves then bring to a simmer.
9. Remove from heat and stir in gelatin (and food coloring if using).
10. Pour mixture through a fine sieve to remove any lumps or rogue flowers.
11. Allow mixture to cool until thicker. You can do this by leaving your bowl on the counter for a while, putting it in ice water, or putting it in the fridge.***
12. Once mixture is thick but you can still spoon it out, remove coconut milk pudding from the fridge and stick lilac blossoms into it. You can lay them flat, but they tend to float depending on thickness of jelly mixture. Using a tablespoon, for easy amount measuring, gently pour lilac jelly onto the coconut milk pudding until it covers the blossoms.****
13. Place puddings in the fridge and cool until lilac jelly sets, at least an hour. Serve cold right out of fridge and marvel at how spring and fun they look and taste!

Notes:
*I went with a milk pudding that is more solid so I could take it out of the jar and eat it in a fancy way (see picture directly above)! Want to choose a different pudding consistency? Check out my Great Gelatin Experiment to help you figure out how much to use!

**Use any water option you like. I used the lilac infusion method water but you can use any other method listed above, one you make up, or just plain water if you would like.

***Good news! If it sets on you because you left it in too long, you can reheat the jelly – 10 seconds in the microwave should do the trick, repeat if needed – just don’t boil it (I swear I didn’t do this…nope…).

****I used two tablespoons per jar of lilac jelly. In the final product this was probably a little more than I desired. Next time I will put enough to just cover the flowers, which for this recipe would have been a little bit over 1 tablespoon per jar.

If you plan to serve it out of the jar like I did above you can make this recipe backwards. Do the lilac jelly top first, let it set, then do the coconut milk pudding. This way when you loosen up the sides you can just flip it over onto a plate and dah dah! The lilacs will be a little less controlled this way.