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Pansy jelly is a light, spring floral jelly that tastes surprisingly like fresh berries, made from the edible pansies blooming in your flower beds. It’s a way to put up a fruit-flavored jelly weeks before the first real fruit of the season is ripe.
Table of Contents
- Notes from My Kitchen
- Quick Look at the Recipe
- What Does Pansy Jelly Taste Like?
- Choosing and Preparing Pansies
- Ingredients for Pansy Jelly
- Low Sugar Options
- How to Make Pansy Jelly
- Canning Pansy Jelly
- Altitude Adjustments
- Ways to Use Pansy Jelly
- Pansy Jelly FAQs
- Flower Jelly Recipes
- Pansy Jelly Recipe
- Jelly Canning Recipes
This recipe has been reviewed for safety and accuracy by a Master Food Preserver certified through the University of Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Pansies are one of the first garden flowers of spring. They shrug off late frosts and bloom long before most garden staples are even planted, which makes them a welcome bit of color before the grass has even greened up for the year.
They also happen to be edible, which is where this comes in. Pansies are lovely tossed into salads or candied for topping treats, and they make a fine flower jelly too. All violas are edible, both wild and cultivated, so the same recipe works with garden pansies, wild violets, and Johnny jump-ups.
Notes from My Kitchen
Pansies are one of the first flowers of the year around here. Every spring my daughter spots them at the garden store and lights up, and we always end up bringing some home. They flower long before the rest of the garden is even planted, so they’re a cheerful sight when the grass still hasn’t greened up.
I love them for that early color, but the fact that they’re edible is the real bonus. Turning a jarful into jelly has become part of our spring, and the berry flavor that comes out of a flower still surprises people every time I hand them a jar.
Quick Look at the Recipe
- Recipe Name: Pansy Jelly
- Recipe Type: Flower Jelly Recipe
- Canning Method: Water Bath Canning
- Prep/Cook Time: 30 Minutes (including steeping)
- Canning Time: 10 Minutes
- Yield: 5 to 6 half-pint jars
- Jar Sizes: Quarter Pint, Half Pint, or Pint
- Headspace: 1/4 inch
- Ingredients Overview: Pansy blossoms, water, lemon juice, sugar, and pectin
- Difficulty: Easy! You’re basically making a floral tea and setting it with pectin.
- Similar Recipes: The process is very similar to other flower jellies made with edible blooms, including Calendula Jelly, Peony Jelly, and Nasturtium Jelly. If you grow edible flowers, it’s worth browsing the whole list of flower jelly recipes.
What Does Pansy Jelly Taste Like?
The same compounds that color pansies also flavor them. Those pink and blue pigments are close cousins of the ones in blueberries and strawberries, and the result is hard to believe until you taste it: pansy jelly tastes like fresh spring berries.
A little lemon juice brings out the color and adds the acidity that makes the effect convincing, so you end up with a “fruit” jelly long before the first fruit of the season is ripe. The fragrance of the flowers comes through underneath, so it reads as berries with a soft floral note.
Choosing and Preparing Pansies
All violas are edible, wild and cultivated alike, so this recipe works with garden pansies, wild violets, and the little Johnny jump-ups (Viola tricolor) that turn up in shady spots. Pansies are the easy choice, since the flowers are large and prolific and you can gather a batch in minutes, rather than the afternoon it takes to collect enough tiny wild violets. As with any edible flower, use blooms from plants that haven’t been sprayed.
Pansies come in every color from bright yellow to a purple so dark it’s nearly black, and you can collect them by color if you’re curious whether different flowers give different jellies. Steeped into tea, though, they all come out a turquoise blue-green, lighter or darker depending on the flowers. Don’t be thrown by that blue-green tea, since it’s perfectly normal.
The moment you add lemon juice (or citric acid), that turquoise tea shifts to pink, red, maroon, or purple, even if you started with yellow or orange pansies. There’s no need to pull the petals or remove the green sepals at the base, since pansy sepals are edible and don’t carry the bitterness you’d find in some other flowers. Plan to use the blossoms the same day they’re picked.
Ingredients for Pansy Jelly
Pansy jelly uses the same basic formula as other flower jellies: fresh blossoms steeped into a tea, then set with sugar, pectin, and a bit of lemon juice for balance and safety.
- Pansy Blossoms: Use whole pansy flowers (sepals and all), or any other viola like wild violets or Johnny jump-ups, picked from unsprayed plants.
- Water: Use clean filtered water if your tap has a strong chlorine taste, since that can muddy the delicate flavor.
- Lemon Juice: The lemon juice turns the turquoise tea pink, balances the sweetness, helps the pectin set, and lowers the pH enough to make the jelly safe for canning. Use bottled lemon juice, which holds a steady acidity that fresh lemons don’t. For a more neutral flavor you can swap in citric acid powder at about 1 teaspoon in place of the 1/4 cup of lemon juice.
- Sugar: Regular powdered pectin needs a good amount of sugar to gel, so this recipe follows the current Sure Jell ratio of 5 cups sugar to 4 cups of pansy tea for an old-fashioned jelly that sets dependably. If you’d rather cut the sugar back, there’s a lower-sugar option in the note just below.
- Pectin: This recipe is built around regular powdered pectin, such as Sure Jell, which is reliable and gives a consistent set.
Low Sugar Options
If you’d prefer a less sweet jelly, reach for Sure Jell low sugar pectin instead and drop the sugar to as little as 1 to 2 cups. With Pomona’s Universal Pectin, bump the lemon juice up to 1/2 cup, since Pomona’s doesn’t include the added citric acid that most other pectins do.
Pomona’s is a 2-part low sugar pectin that comes with calcium water and behaves a little differently, so follow the mint jelly directions on the box. If it’s your first time using it, it’s worth reading through how to use Pomona’s pectin first.
How to Make Pansy Jelly
Making pansy jelly runs like any other flower jelly. You steep the blossoms into a tea, set it with pectin and sugar, and add lemon juice along the way. Don’t skip that lemon, since it balances the sweetness, brings out the color, helps the set, and lowers the pH enough to keep the jelly safe on the shelf, so it goes in even if you’re not canning.
Most of the time here is hands-off while the blossoms steep, so have your jars and lids ready before you start. That way you can move quickly once the jelly comes up to its boil.
Prepare the Blossoms
You’ll need about 4 cups of fresh pansy blossoms, loosely packed, which is roughly a quart jar full. Pansy jelly is one where the full 4 cups pays off, since it gives a deeper color and fuller flavor, though you can use 2 cups for a lighter version.
There’s no need to remove the sepals or trim the flowers; the whole pansy goes in. Pick over the blossoms for any insects or debris, and use them the same day you harvest.
Make the Pansy Tea
Pour 4 cups of boiling water over the blossoms and let them steep for 15 to 20 minutes. The tea will come out a turquoise blue-green. Don’t be surprised by the color, since it turns pink to purple as soon as the lemon juice goes in.
Strain the tea through a fine mesh strainer into a jelly pot, pressing gently on the blossoms. You’re aiming for about 4 cups of tea. If you come up short, top it off with water to bring it back to 4 cups.
Add Lemon Juice and Pectin
Stir 1/4 cup of lemon juice into the pansy tea, and watch the turquoise shift to pink or purple. (Along with the color, the lemon balances the sugar, helps the pectin set, and makes the jelly safe to can, so don’t leave it out even if these are headed for the fridge.) Bring the mixture up to a boil over medium-high heat.
Once it’s boiling, whisk in one box of powdered pectin until it’s completely dissolved, and let it boil hard for 1 full minute. The pectin goes in before the sugar, which is what lets the jelly set, so hold that order.
Add the Sugar
After that minute, add 5 cups of sugar all at once. (Do not add the sugar before or at the same time as the pectin, or the jelly won’t set up.) Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Bring the jelly back to a full rolling boil for exactly 1 minute, then pull it off the heat and skim away any foam with a spoon. Immediately ladle the hot jelly into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
Canning Pansy Jelly
Canning is optional. If you’d rather not, let the jars cool completely on the counter and tuck them into the refrigerator for a few weeks, or the freezer for up to 6 months in freezer-safe jars.
For shelf storage, I like to run the jars through a water bath canner so the jelly keeps at room temperature year-round and I can have that berry flavor any time of year. Make sure you’ve used the full amount of lemon juice, since that acidity is what makes water bath canning safe. Have your canner, jars, and lids prepped before you start the jelly. After ladling into jars (leaving 1/4 inch headspace), wipe the rims with a clean, damp cloth, set the lids, and tighten the bands to fingertip tight.
Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude as needed. Let the jars cool undisturbed on a towel for 24 hours, then check the seals. Refrigerate any that didn’t seal and use them first. Properly canned and sealed jars will maintain quality on the pantry shelf for 12 to 18 months. Refrigerate after opening.
Altitude Adjustments
For water bath canning, processing times increase at higher elevations:
- 0 to 6,000 feet: 10 minutes
- Above 6,000 feet: 15 minutes
Ways to Use Pansy Jelly
Pansy jelly’s berry-floral flavor is a natural on toast, biscuits, and scones, and the pink-to-purple color makes it a standout. It’s also nice spooned into yogurt or set out with a soft cheese, and a few jars make a thoughtful early-spring gift.
It takes well to a couple of additions, too. Pansies and dandelion petals together make a honey-berry jelly, since dandelion petals taste like honey. You can also lean on pansies for color in a lavender jelly, using a few cups of pansies with about a tablespoon of lavender, which gives plenty of color and lavender flavor, though the pansy flavor itself gets lost behind the lavender.
Pansy Jelly FAQs
Yes. All violas are edible, so wild violets and Johnny jump-ups (Viola tricolor) work the same way as garden pansies. The only catch is size: wild violets are tiny, so it can take an afternoon to gather enough for a batch, while pansies fill a jar in minutes. Use only unsprayed, correctly identified edible flowers.
That’s normal. Pansy tea steeps out a turquoise blue-green no matter the flower color, and it turns pink, red, maroon, or purple the moment you add the lemon juice. The acid changes the color, and that pink-to-purple shade carries into the finished jelly.
The most common reasons jelly doesn’t set are adding the sugar at the same time as the pectin (add pectin first and boil for 1 minute before adding sugar), boiling the finished jelly for too long (over 5 minutes), or trying to double the batch size. If it doesn’t set after 24-48 hours, enjoy it as a floral syrup or read through my guide on troubleshooting jelly set.
Yes, but you’ll need to use a low-sugar pectin like Sure-Jell Low Sugar or Pomona’s Universal Pectin and follow the package instructions for mint jelly. If you use Pomona’s, increase the lemon juice to 1/2 cup, since it doesn’t contain the added citric acid that other pectins do. The yield will be lower with reduced sugar.
Flower Jelly Recipes
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Pansy Jelly
Equipment
- Canning Jars, Lids and Bands
Ingredients
For the Pansy Tea
- 4 cups fresh pansy blossoms, or other edible viola
- 4 cups water
For the Jelly
- 4 cups pansy tea, strained
- 1/4 cup bottled lemon juice, or 1 teaspoon citric acid
- 1 box powdered pectin, 1.75 oz, regular, such as Sure-Jell original or 6 Tbsp Bulk Pectin
- 5 cups granulated sugar, See notes for low sugar option
Instructions
- Harvest the pansy blossoms into a heat-proof container. No need to remove the sepals or bases; they're edible and don't carry the bitterness found in some other flowers.
- Pour the boiling water over the blossoms and steep 15 to 20 minutes, then strain into a jam pot. The tea will be turquoise blue-green at this stage. Measure it and add water if needed to reach the full amount.
- Stir in the lemon juice, which turns the tea pink to purple. It balances the sugar, helps the pectin set, and adds the acidity needed to safely can the jelly, so don’t skip it.
- Bring to a boil, then whisk in the powdered pectin until dissolved and boil hard for 1 full minute. (Do not add the sugar at the same time as the pectin, or before it, or the jelly won’t set.)
- Add all the sugar at once and stir to dissolve. Return to a full rolling boil and boil hard for exactly 1 minute, then remove from heat and skim off any foam.
- Ladle hot jelly into prepared jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rims clean, center lids, and apply bands fingertip-tight.
- Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off the heat and let jars rest 5 minutes before removing. Cool undisturbed 12-24 hours before checking seals. Or, to skip canning, cool completely and store in the refrigerator for up to a month or the freezer for up to 6 months.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Jelly Canning Recipes
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After the first batch, we’ve had to plant pansies every year in our spring garden because my daughter loves this one so much!
What did it taste like? I want to try it but I don’t know if my kids will like it.
It really does taste like fresh berries, not floral or perfumey like you’d expect from a flower. My daughter loves it so much we end up planting pansies every spring just to keep her in jelly. I’d bet your kids will be into it too, especially on toast or biscuits. Enjoy!