Dandelion Syrup
Dandelion Syrup made at home is an interesting little project if you’ve plenty of pesticide-free flowers.
Use the golden, delicately flavoured syrup as you would honey: over pancakes, at breakfast with yogurt or oats. Indeed anywhere you want to add sweetness with a little intriguing flavour.
Jump to Recipe
After seeing various people doing interesting things with dandelion heads (frying them, making marmalade and vegan ‘honey’), I wondered why I hadn’t come across recipes using this much-maligned ‘weed’ before.
Perhaps it was due to the Covid-19 lockdown with most of us having to find more things to do at home? Me, I’m never short of potential things to do. I just long for the energy to make all my ideas reality!
One thing I certainly don’t have the energy for is a tidy garden. I like to tell myself that I leave a few weeds here, some seed heads from last year over there, simply because it’s better for wildlife. But I know there’d still be plenty of untidiness whether it was good for wildlife or not.
However, the plus side of all that, and having a weed killer and pesticide-free garden, means that I could start collecting the flower heads as soon as I decided to jump on the dandelion bandwagon.
Dandelion Syrup
Dandelion Syrup seemed the way to go as I thought I’d be able to make the most use of it.
I do use quite a bit of honey plus syrups such as maple and date on things like yogurt, pancakes and porridge.
I browsed around, looking at various online recipes and tips. Finally, I developed my own version of Dandelion Syrup using those hints plus my own knowledge of making preserves.
Picking & Preparing the Dandelion Heads
To make the four small jars in this recipe, you’ll need around 150 dandelion heads.
At first, I was a bit fussy and only picked from my garden. I didn’t fancy the dog peed-on ones in the park. As I’d read that you could freeze the heads until you’d collected enough, that’s what I initially did, giving them a quick rinse to get rid of any bugs first.
But then I heard that both washing and freezing could destroy some of the flavour, so thought better of it.
In the end, I picked as many fresh ones as I could from my garden, then collected the rest that afternoon while walking the dog in the park (which I know isn’t sprayed, just mown).
Everything was going to be brought to a boil and simmered anyway, so I wasn’t going to worry about a bit of dog pee.
All I did was spread the flowers over a piece of paper towel so that any insects could crawl away.
During my research, I found disagreement about how much green matter should be removed from the dandelion heads.
It’s the green stem and leaves which are very bitter and I’m not a huge fan of bitter. But I wasn’t going to pick off every individual petal, so just scissored off most of it.
Making Dandelion ‘Tea’
The next step in making Dandelion Syrup is to make a ‘tea’ with the petals and water. Virtually all the recipes I’d seen also included apple and lemon juice at this stage.
I think this not only flavours the eventual syrup but, as I know from jam making, apple is often used in preserves as it’s high in pectin. Pectin is a natural setting agent that’s released when the apples are cooked. And acidic lemon helps to release that pectin.
My recipe for Marrow or Courgette Jam with Lemon & Ginger makes use of both apple and lemon as marrows and courgettes are very low in pectin.
Once I realised this, the initial strangeness of a dandelion syrup, marmalade or jam didn’t seem so odd. It was just a preserve like any other.
I simmered the dandelion ‘tea’ for around 25 minutes. It seemed unlikely that any more of the delicate flavour I was after would be released after that time, while the chances of bitterness would probably increase.
After straining through a cheese-cloth lined sieve, I was left with a pretty yellow liquid.
Making the Dandelion Syrup
To make the Dandelion Syrup, all you do is combine the ‘tea’ with sugar and simmer until your desired consistency is reached through evaporation.
I knew that I wanted a finished syrup that was nicely runny and golden in colour. What I definitely didn’t want was something very thick or stickily over caramelized.
I’d seen some simmering times that seemed ridiculously long. As much as four hours in some cases. That didn’t marry at all with what I knew about making preserves where cooking too long actually spoils the flavour.
As to the amount of sugar, I aimed for a balance between what I’d use for jam and for a cordial.
At the start of the simmering process I put a few small saucers in the freezer. I always do this when I make jam as it’s a good way of quickly cooling a teaspoonful to gauge the consistency. Gently push the cold syrup with your finger and it should just slightly wrinkle when done. If it doesn’t, continue simmering and testing until the syrup’s done to your liking.
I found my Dandelion Syrup needed just an hour and twenty minutes of gentle simmering and occasional stirring before it was ready.
Potting & Storing Dandelion Syrup
While the Dandelion Syrup was simmering, I prepared some jars and lids just as I would for jam.
First, I washed them in hot, soapy water then rinsed and drained them. Then they went on a baking tray in the oven at its lowest setting. Once the jars were untouchably hot, I switched the oven off but left them inside until the syrup is ready.
You pour the warm Dandelion Syrup into the hot jars and carefully put their lids on. Go back later when they’ve cooled enough so you can tighten the lids a bit more.
As with jams and chutneys, I see no reason why this syrup won’t keep well for at least a year. And probably very much longer too.
Uses for Dandelion Syrup
Some people call Dandelion Syrup dandelion ‘honey’ or ‘vegan honey’. But I’m not a fan of such misnaming and doubt any self-respecting bee would own it.
Although I like its delicate, not-quite-neutral sweetness, you can’t expect Dandelion Syrup to have the complexity of a real quality honey like that produced at Hillbrook Apiaries which is my current favourite.
On the other hand, I’ve certainly tasted mass-produced honey that had less interesting flavour than my syrup!
If I make it again next year, perhaps I’ll pick a few more dandelions to see if I can get a more pronounced floral taste.
Nevertheless, I’ve found lots of uses for Dandelion Syrup already. I first tried it over fruit and homemade yogurt, then drizzled over raspberry and coconut porridge.
In both cases, I think it worked; adding sweetness but with extra flavour that didn’t overwhelm like maple syrup or a strong honey might have done.
Then I wondered how Dandelion Syrup would stand up to replacing my usual maple or date syrup over Sourdough Pancakes and butter.
I was surprised to find that I really liked it. Again, it added the necessary sweetness with that certain extra something you don’t get just from sugar.
At the same time, it allowed the wonderful flavour of the pancakes to come through.
I found that another way of using Dandelion Syrup is in hot or cold drinks.
A spoonful in a mug of herb tea before bed was nicely relaxing. Mixed with chilled sparkling water it was refreshing with an intriguing but pleasant taste.
An Interesting Experiment
I’m really glad I tried my hand at making Dandelion Syrup.
It won’t replace wonderful, complexly flavoured, quality honey or maple syrup’s very specific pleasures.
But I think Dandelion Syrup has lots of potential, especially as those flowers would otherwise be going under the mower.
Have you made Dandelion Syrup or anything else with dandelion? I’d love to hear about it, so please leave a comment.
Dandelion Syrup
Dandelion Syrup is an interesting project if you've plenty of pesticide-free flowers. Use the golden, delicately flavoured syrup as you would honey: over pancakes, yogurt or oats, in drinks.
Ingredients
- 100-120 dandelion heads freshly picked, unwashed
- 2 medium apples deseeded, chopped roughly
- 2 lemons juice only
- 1 litre water
- 700 g sugar
Instructions
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Lay the dandelion heads on kitchen paper to allow any insects to crawl out.
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Put 2 or 3 small saucers in the freezer: they'll be used to quickly cool teaspoons of the syrup to check its consistency.
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Cut away most of the green part behind the head of each dandelion and put the petals into a saucepan.
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Stir in the apples, lemon juice and water and bring to a boil.
Immediately turn down the heat and simmer gently for 25 minutes.
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Strain the contents of the saucepan through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a clean jug or bowl.
Discard the contents of the sieve.
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Wash, rinse & dry the saucepan then pour in the dandelion liquid.
Add the sugar to the pan and stir over moderate heat until the sugar dissolves.
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Bring up to a boil then immediately turn the heat to low.
Simmer very gently, stirring occasionally, until the syrup is your preferred consistency (1¼ - 2 hrs).
To check consistency:
Take the saucepan off the heat.
Take one of the cold saucers from the freezer, put a teaspoon of syrup on it to cool.
Gently push the syrup with your finger: it should slightly wrinkle. If you want a thicker syrup, simmer for longer and test again.
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Meanwhile: wash four small jars and their lids in hot, soapy water then rinse and drain them.
Put the oven on its lowest setting and place the jars and lids on a baking tray inside.
Turn off the oven when the jars are hot, but leave inside until the syrup is ready.
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When the syrup is at your preferred consistency, pour into warm jars and put lids on.
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When the jars are cold, tighten the lids a little more if possible. Store in a cool, dark place.
Ready to use immediately, but unopened jars should keep at least a year.
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Trying your recipe tomorrow. Very well explained. Can’t wait.
Hope you like it, Caroline!