Dandelion Honey
This easy dandelion honey recipe turns fresh dandelion petals into a golden, honey-flavored vegan syrup for tea, biscuits, and baking. Keep it in the fridge.
Servings: 12 servings, makes about 3/4 cup
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup dandelion petals yellow parts only, fluffy, not packed
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice or lime juice, see notes
Instructions
- Pick fully open dandelion flowers from a clean, unsprayed area, away from roadsides.
- Break each flower in half from top to bottom to open the center, and pull out the yellow petals, leaving all the green bracts behind. Measure the petals loosely, not packed, and scale the recipe to match (see notes).
- Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan, then take it off the heat. Stir in the petals and let them steep for about 30 minutes.
- Strain the tea through a fine mesh strainer, pressing gently on the petals.
- Pour the tea back into the saucepan and add the sugar and lemon juice. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves completely, before it comes to a boil, and brush any sugar crystals down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush.
- Turn the heat to high and boil hard, without stirring, until it reaches thread stage, 230 to 235°F (110 to 113°C), about 15 minutes on an average stove. At higher elevations, take off 2°F for every 1,000 feet (see notes). Turn the heat down to medium for the last few minutes, when it scorches easily.
- Take the pan off the heat and pour the dandelion honey into warm, clean jars, leaving the last bit in the pan. Let it cool, then cover and refrigerate. It thickens a lot as it cools.
Notes
Refrigerator recipe: There's no tested process for canning flower syrups, so dandelion honey is a refrigerator recipe. Keep it in a closed jar in the fridge and use it within about a month. For longer storage, freeze it in straight-sided, freezer-safe jars with 1 inch of headspace. It won't freeze solid.
Scaling: Every cup of fluffy petals takes 2 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar, and 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice. About 4 cups of whole flower heads make 1 cup of cleaned petals, and each cup of sugar makes about 3/4 cup of dandelion honey.
Lemon juice: Lime juice works the same way, with a slightly different flavor. For citric acid, use 1/8 teaspoon in place of each 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice.
Thread stage: 230 to 235°F at sea level. At higher elevations, take off 2°F for every 1,000 feet, or check your thermometer in boiling water and cook to 18 to 23 degrees above that reading.
No thermometer: Boil it for a few minutes, let it cool completely, and check the consistency. If it's too thin, bring it back to a boil briefly. Undercooked syrup can be heated again, but overcooked syrup turns to hard candy.
Big batches: A bigger batch takes much longer to reach thread stage. Use a wide pot, and keep boiling if the temperature sits just a couple of degrees above boiling.
Crystals: If it turns white and grainy, warm it gently with a splash of water, stirring until it's clear again.
Jelly-style version: The version made with green apples has its own amounts and steps in the post.