Dandelion Syrup

This syrup uses the flowers from the dandelion plant and has a delicate flavour similar to honey. It can be used much the same way as other plant based syrups and best of all it costs no more than a bag of sugar!

Once you've picked your dandelion flowers you need to remove the green parts as they can discolour the syrup and leaving it tasting slightly bitter.

Dandelion syrup

Ingredients

2 cups dandelion petals

4 cups boiling water

2 - 3 cups granulated sugar

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Method

Wash your dandelions and leave to dry to remove any bugs hiding in there.

Remove all the green parts of the dandelion heads. You can slice the green parts off with a knife or scissors if you find it easiest. I let the petals close up a bit then gripped them all together, making sure not to hold any green parts, twisted a bit and pulled them off and that worked quite well for me. You'll need about 4 cups or so of dandelions to get 2 cups of petals.

Add the petals to the pan with the boiling water and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Take of the heat, cover and leave to stand overnight or for 8-12 hours.

Strain out the petals from the water and squeeze out the petals, this should leave you with about 3 cups of dandelion water.

Put the water in the pan with the sugar and lemon juice. I only had 2 1/2 cups of sugar in the house so I used that amount, more sugar will give you a thicker syrup. 

Bring to the boil whilst stirring until the sugar has dissolved, cover and reduce to a simmer.

Simmer for around 2 hours, stirring occasionally. To check the consistency, get a little bit on a spoon, allow it to cool a bit and dip your finger in. Once you're happy with the consistency remove from the heat.

Allow to cool slightly and pour into sterilised jars and seal.