Rose hip syrup... why I can't wait to get the sniffles.

We had my best friend and her husband over for dinner tonight along with their 1 1/2 year old. It was great to be entertaining again. We had a great meal, which I neglected to take pictures of but it was an Italian feast of risotto, balsamic glazed pork loin, stacks of roasted vegetables and homemade baguettes. I decided to make Panna Cotta for dessert, which will be my go-to for every occasion now that I know how simple it is and that it can be made ahead of time.

I wanted to make the panna cotta special though, so I decided I would use up some of the rose hips on the gigantic rosebush we have growing outside. I had read about making rose hip syrup somewhere and thought it would be just the right thing to add a little country flair to my Italian dessert. I didn't really use a recipe, I just went with what I've done before to make fruit syrups, though I had to modify my approach to the very hard rose hips.

First I picked about a pound of rose hips and rinsed them thoroughly three or four times since the ends where the interior of the rose would have been were really quite prickly and fell apart easily.

I cut the tips and bottoms off of each rose hip and then covered them with water and set them to boil for about 15-20 minutes. Once they had absorbed all of the water I was able to mash them.

Once again I covered the mash with water and set it to boil for about 10 minutes and then let it steep for half an hour. I then strained the pulp out, added a 1/4 c. of sugar and let it simmer away until it was a nice syrupy consistency.

I let this cool and was left with a delicious tangy sweet but very subtle syrup that was the perfect compliment to the rich vanilla panna cotta. We dug into them so quickly that I didn't get a picture of the final dessert but here is a picture of the finished syrup:

During WWII the Ministry of Food in England suggested parents make rose hip syrup to give to their children for an immune system boost. Apparently rose hips are very high in Vitamin C, and a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. So now I have an excuse to make up another batch and keep it around to crack open when I start getting the sniffles.