I am so excited to present the first of (hopefully!) many appearances by our guest chef! My very gifted sister, PP, channeling Kintsugi and going full Spring-time Eladrin with two gorgeous recipes. They feature seasonal flowers: acacia/locust blossoms and elderflowers. The fragrance is guaranteed to enchant any Air Genasi in your life. And they taste delicious too!
ELDERFLOWER SAND COOKIES
(makes approx 50 cookies)
Based on a large bouquet of elderflowers and the kouramiedes recipe from the NY Times Cookbook
Ingredients:
200 g butter at room temperature
2 cups elderflowers, blossoms only, picked over to remove twigs
1/2 cup powder sugar
2 Tbsp sugar
1 egg, separated
2 Tbsp barrel aged hard liquor – grappa/brandy/rum/cognac
1 1/2 Tbsp elderflower syrup
4 cups white flour (for extra light crumb, sub 1 cup gluten free flour mix like rice/corn starch)
1 tsp baking powder
generous pinch salt
few drops vanilla essence
Additional confectioners sugar for serving
Method:
Cream the butter in an electric mixer until thick and fluffy. Add 2 Tbsp sugar, continue to cream. Sift confectioners
sugar, and add gradually to the butter. Then add the egg yolk (for speed hack, can directly add the whole egg here with
only very minimal loss of lift), and finally the cognac, vanilla essence and elderflower syrup, continuing to cream the
mixture well.
Beat egg white to stiff peaks.
Twice sift the flour with the baking powder and salt, then gradually work it into the creamed butter mixture, with a
spatula or spoon, together with the flowers, and finally gently folding in the egg white to make a soft crumbly dough.
It should be formable into a ball with your hand when gently worked, but will not form a smooth dough in the bowl.
Refrigerate for at least one hour, up to three hours.
Heat oven to 180° C.
Pat and shape dough gently into walnut sized balls, laying onto an ungreased baking parchment on baking sheet. Using
a fork, gently press the balls down to flatten them slightly, leaving impressions of the tines (to catch the sugar). Bake
until sandy coloured, just beginning to go gold, but NOT golden brown (about 15-20 min). This amount of dough
usually requires two baking batches in a standard sized oven.
Cool on a rack, then plate and sift additional powder sugar on top.
Store cooled cookies in a closed jar or box.
BEIGNETS DE FLEURS D’ACACIA
Ingredients:
2 -3 dozen white, honey smelling false acacia (black locust) Robinia pseudoacacia flower clusters
— pick these away from roads, crop spraying or any other sources of chemical pollution, ideally in the morning after at
least a day or two without rain for maximum perfume and nectar content-
— NB do NOT pick the yellow flowers of the golden chain tree Laburnum anagyroides which are toxic
180 g flour
1/4 — 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
50 g powder sugar
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
100 ml milk
150 ml prosecco/sparkling cider/light malty beer
a pinch of salt
optional – a few drops vanilla essence, a tsp orange flower water
frying oil (I prefer peanut or sunflower)
powder sugar for sprinkling
Method:
Separate egg, beat the white to semi-stiff peaks with the powder sugar
Sieve or whisk the flour, salt, granulated sugar, and baking powder in a mixing bowl
Whisk together the egg yolk and the milk adding the vanilla essence and orange flower water if using, then pour that
mixture together with the prosecco into a well in your dry ingredients, whisking well to make a smooth batter.
Let rest 10 minutes, then gently incorporate in the egg whites, and rest another 10 minutes
During this time, gently shake out the acacia clusters to make sure any small insect passersby are gone – we are not
aiming for extra protein here.
Heat up the frying oil in a large cast iron skillet to a depth of a few mm (I shallow fry – if you have a deep fryer, you can
use that) heating the oil to max 180°C so you do not burn the delicate fritters.
Grab two flower clusters by their central twigs and align them more or less together. Holding them by the central twigs
dip them into your batter, then gently tap off excess against the side of your bowl, and place into the hot oil. Make sure
you leave space around each fritter so they are not touching.
Fry 2.5 – 3 min per side, until golden but not brown
- time varies highly depending on cluster size and lushness, so be vigilant.
You can let a batch rest briefly on a wire rack or paper-lined plate in warm oven while finishing the rest, but don’t wait
too long as they are best with the contrast of shatteringly crisp batter and delicate flowers.
Sprinkle with powder sugar to serve.
Do not eat the central twigs, as they can give a mild headache.
Tears of the Seldarine 
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