Magnolia Flower Recipes

Magnolia flowers (Magnolia spp.) aren’t just beautiful, they’re delicious! With a flavour that’s a combination of ginger, cloves, and cardamom, they’re best served as a seasoning rather than a main dish. But that doesn’t mean their flavour can’t shine! 

Photo: Some of my first culinary uses of Magnolia flowers - fresh, dried, infused into Vodka, and Magnolia-scented Couscous.

My culinary experiments with Magnolias are just starting, and I can think of a TON of uses, including:

• infused into vinegar, vodka, or rum;

• infused into heavy cream for cheesecake;

• added to ice cream;

• candied;

• made into syrup;

• as a decorative and tasty topping for baked goods including cookies and muffins;

• fresh or dried for tea; and

• dried and crushed as a spice.  

Here are a couple of the first things I tried.

Kate’s Magnolia-scented Couscous

1-2 fresh Magnolia flowers

1 cup Couscous

1 1/3 cup water

¼ cup dried currants (optional)

Butter, to taste

1.      Separate the Magnolia petals from the base of the flower.

2.      Bring water to a boil.

3.      Stir in Couscous and Magnolia petals, remove from heat, and steep for 5-10 minutes.

4.      Stir in currants, if using, and serve hot topped with butter. This is also nice cold the following day.

Dried Magnolia Flowers

Magnolia flowers are delicate. They didn’t air-dry well for me, and I had to play around with the dehydrator a bit to find a combination of time and temperature that wouldn’t char them. It’s pretty humid here on the east coast, so air-drying may work for you if you are in a drier location. I found that five hours in the dehydrator at 100F worked perfectly.