Elderflower extra

with recipes for elderflower semi-freddo and muscat jelly

I know, I know - I did promise a recipe for elderberry and plum relish, but with autumn still a long way off, let’s stick with elderflowers till we get there. Of the two recipes that follow, the delicate fragrance of the fresh blossoms can survive the chill of the freezer as a semi-fraddo, while muscat jelly is an old-fashioned preserve called for a particularly fragrant Mediterranean grape variety, aka moscatel (as in Moscatel de Valencia, my favourite dessert wine), popular at tea-time in country-houses with walled gardens and fruit-cages. Those were the days.