Homemade Rose Water, whether homegrown roses or purchased, for cooking or beauty essentials, is easy and I’m going to show you how to make it!
Oh How We Love Fresh Rose Petals – Men Women And Children
Yes my friends, men, women and children.
As a single mom raising four beautiful children, three boys and one girl, I learned so much about grown men, from raising three tender hearted little boys.
Back in those years, we lived with my mom on twelve acres of land, so of course we grew a variety of roses.
My boys, being the oldest, would go into the gardens with their grandma and help feed and prune the rose bushes, and enjoy their magnificent scent.
I believe exposing my sons to this memorable time, cultivated treasured memories of grandma and a love for the scent of roses.
Have You Noticed That Many Roses No Longer Have The Scent Of Rose?
Leave it to us humans to tinker with nature and science.
As we have sought to breed roses to become more durable and enhance their looks, these hybrid roses have lost their scent gene.
For this reason, the best roses for making rose water, with stronger scents, will come from organic, non-hybrid rose petals and preferably heirloom roses.
This type of rose is actually easy to find and easy to grow.
Homemade Recipes With Edible Roses
If you enjoy transforming flower petals into Edible Recipes, or add their essence into your natural skincare products, this alone is a good reason to try your hand at growing a rose bush or two.
Even a large, deep pot near a window, will produce a manageable rose bush.
Otherwise, just check with a local florist to see what type of roses they sell, or simply smell them!
So Many Reasons To Make Homemade Rosewater
This easy DIY rose water technique has so many uses for cooking, skin enhancement, calming aromatherapy, even a cup of rose tea, is worth extracting your own rose water for.
I am excited to share with you the new toy I’ve purchased for the cold steam distilling method of extracting concentrated essence from my plants.
It has become the easiest way I’ve tried to obtain an intense natural fragrance from the roses, and essential properties from other plants.
Far better than simply boiling, which I’ve tried and it really tastes mostly of water.
But, let’s talk about many of those uses you are going to want to extract from these rose blossoms so that you will be as excited to try as I am.
Food First – And The Different Ways To Use Rose Water In Cooking
Having grown up with a first generation Syrian mom, we cooked different foods in our home than many of my school friends did in theirs.
Rose water recipes are numerous throughout Middle Eastern and some Mediterranean homes.
Most often you will find rose water used in desserts, or teas.
Favorite uses from rice pudding (very Iranian), to the syrup I make to pour over Baklava, or use in my Rosewater Baklava Muffins.
I’ve even added rose water to my Easter Bunny Shortbread cookie dough, for an exotic flavor and not simply vanilla.
Cooking With Fresh Petals
As you look throughout my recipe collections, you will notice more and more recipes being created with edible flowers in mind.
In fact, I now grow flowers specifically for cooking.
Below you will find a growing list of the many recipes I adore using essence of flowers.
- Pink Peony Colada Cocktail – with homemade peony syrup, rum and coconut milk, ornamented with peony blossom ice cubes.
- Dandelion Flower Bread – from early spring dandelion flower petals, lemon and banana, for a moist quick bread.
- Edible Flower Shortbread Cookies – with the petals baked on top of a cardamom flavored cookie dough.
- Cherry Blossom Wedding Cocktail – made with cherry blossom honey, Sake, Prosecco and cherry blossom ice cubes.
- Butterfly Pea Flower Tea Bread – a beautiful blue flower, dried into a tea and made into a delicious yeast bread.
Organic Roses For Beauty Products And Health Concerns
This list could go on and on, simply because the benefits of rose water are quite vast.
Believe me, it is not the scent that makes rose water benefits so popular.
So, allow me to explain a few here:
1. Let’s talk about Skin Irritation – Concentrated rose water extraction has strong anti-inflammatory properties.
While it has health benefits to help with internal inflammation, such as IBS or other agitated internal issues, let’s stick to the topical inflammation many of us wrestle with from time to time.
Sensitive skin is most prone to issues such as eczema (a dry, itchy, rash-like agitation on the skin), to rosacea (visible blood vessels in the face), of which these skin irritations need calming.
Spraying a mist of natural rose water on the agitated areas, using as a face toner or homemade rose water toner added to a witch hazel mist, will calm these flair ups and calm the symptoms.
2. Let’s talk about Antioxidant properties – Rose petals and rose oil contain some rather powerful antioxidants, as does the comfrey plant, which you may have already heard me speak about.
This makes rose water a great addition to teas, which can help soothe sore throats, reduce headaches and relax digestive problems.
3. Hair issues – Add the extracted rose water to your shampoo, or better yet, make it a final rinse of your hair, paying special attention to the scalp.
The skin on our scalp rarely gets the attention it needs to keep its pores clear and nourished.
The natural oils of the rose, and vitamin C will add a bit of shine to your hair as well.
How to Make Your Own Rosewater
Whether you are interested to make your own rosewater to aid in a natural beauty product or you want to sip or cook with it, we first need to extract the most concentrated essence possible from the petals.
If you grow many things in your garden or think you will want to extract plant essence from other sources, a Steam Distillation Kit is a wonderful addition to your kitchen tools.
The rest is simple from there.
A steamer pot gets filled with rose petals, lid on and silicon tube attaches it to the condenser.
The condenser pot gets filled with ice cubes, cooling its coils as the boiling steam travels through the coils.
The steamer pot is attached to the top of the large pot, where the boiled water happens sending steam over the petals, which then carries the essence of the rose through the cooling coils.
A concentration of rose essence then escapes into a cup.
Generally, about 3/4 of a cup is extracted at a time.
And there you have it.
Easy, Pure and Quite Ancient!
Equipment Needed
- Steam distillation kit
- A 1 ounce glass jar or spray bottle
- Cutting board and knife
- Stovetop or burner
Ingredients Needed
- Distilled water or filtered water
- Fresh Rose petals
- Ice cubes
How To Make Homemade Rose Water
Equipment
- Steam Distillation Kit
- Small glass jar or bottle
Ingredients
- 2 liters Distilled water or filtered water
- 2-3 cups Fresh Rose petals rough chopped
- 2 cups Ice cubes
Instructions
- Place several cups of filtered water (depending on the size of your pot) in the boiling pot of the distiller.
- Wash, dry and finely chop, if not macerate, the rose petals you are using. Place them into the steamer pot, with a sieve plate on the bottom and top. Steamer top gets screwed on tight.
- Attach the silicon tubing to the steamer and the condenser. The condenser pot may need a small stand under so it allows room to place a cup under the drip spout.
- Turn on the heat. Add ice cubes into the condenser. Place a drip cup under the spout.
- By the time the water starts to boil, lots of steam should begin to appear, take care not to burn yourself with the steam, and you will begin to see a collection of beautiful essence go into the cup. Once it is apparent the boiling water has reduced (don’t let it dry out), turn off the stove.
- Transfer the collection into a spray bottle, Mason jar, or use the collection to add to your creams and lotions.
Video
Notes
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.