Friday, April 4, 2008

Dandy Muffins and Bread


Before making this recipe, you'll need to harvest a cup of dandelion petals. This shouldn't take more than 15 minutes with the right flowers and technique. Choose tall, robust dandelions that have been allowed to grow unmolested. Abandoned lots and field margins are good places to look. Generally the presence of dandelions indicates herbicides are not in use, but roadside specimens can contain the residue of other chemicals. Choose your spots wisely. You'll want to harvest in the morning, before the flowers have fully opened. Grasp the yellow part of the flower (the petals) and twist away from the green sepals and stem. Discard any greenery. I prefer the bread to the muffins.

2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dandelion petals
1/4 cup canola oil
4 tbsp honey
1 egg
scant 1 1/2 cups milk

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl, including petals, and mix. Make sure to separate clumps of petals. In separate bowl mix together milk, honey, oil, and beat in egg. Add liquid ingredients to dry and stir. Batter should be fairly wet and lumpy. Pour into buttered bread tin or muffin tin. Bake at 400 degrees. A dozen muffins will take 20-25 minutes. Bread will take 25-30 or more minutes. At 25 minutes, check doneness of bread with a toothpick. If still too moist inside, lower oven temperature and continue to bake, checking every five minutes.


This recipe is based on one in Peter Gail's The Dandelion Celebration; mine doubles the amount of dandelion petals. My first attempt—the muffins—used the recommended 1/2 cup of petals. You can see the color contrast in the two images above, with the bread and its full cup of petals better showing off the dandy essence. I might even add more petals next time. The final product is savory sweet, somewhat like cornbread, with the yellow petals an eye-catching glint of sunlight.

24 comments:

Cassie Tuttle said...

This looks likes an easy and wonderful recipe. I'm going to try it!

Thanks.

esp said...

This looks like a wonderful bread.

If you are harvesting petals, do you use them in cooking without washing or rinsing them? I imagine that trying to rinse dandelion petals would just result in a big soggy clump.

gardenbre said...

I can't wait to try this ... thanks for sharing this ... I ate my first dandylion last year when Julie, a Vietnamese woman in our allotment told me they were sweet and I should try one!

Nurit said...

wow, this is so great. I got to your blog post from Tea & Cookies blog (she linked to you). I love this idea of using dandelions instead of fighting them. Would it be safe to use the ones in my backyard? I haven't used chemicals in the lawn for the past 3 years...

Tempted In The Sea of Salvation said...

We've let our back yard go to hell in a handbasket, but now I'm happily looking forward at actually using some of those dandelions out there for something practical. Thanks for this!

Jennifer said...

My 7 year old daughter and I made this bread today and it is really good! It does taste a lot like cornbread. We will definately make it again and try some of the other dandelion recipes too.

Pille said...

Fascinating!! i'm not new to forageing - and have made both dandelion honey (using the petals) and salads (using the greens), but not dandelion bread. Bookmarked!!

Dazy said...

This would be my son's version of Heaven! I think I'd enjoy it, too!

Chiot's Run said...

Was just searching for a recipe, spotted on on a blog a long time ago. Thanks for sharing, can't wait to harvest some sunny yellow blooms and give this a go!

Liz and Thom said...

My ladyfriend and I chose your recipe! Thanks for posting it. Wish us luck for the weekend!

http://transatlantickitchen.blogspot.com/2010/04/recipe-12-dandelion-bread.html

On a Wing and a Whim said...

Twice the dandelion petals, and a teaspoon of ginger really brought out the dandelion flavor, but I need more ginger in order to actually taste it against the much stronger dandelion flavor.

Next I'll try it in cornbread.

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Nessie said...

I made some of your bread today. I swapped out the egg for EnerG egg replacer, almond milk for cow's, and agave for honey. Delicious.

I must add that washing the flower heads before you cut them makes them really difficult to handle. So probably better to skip it or wash the petals after they are separated.

Anonymous said...

I tried the Dandy Bread recipe, it was soooo easy, and it turned out beautiful! I will definitely make this again, and I am eager to try other Dandy recipes on your page. Thanks!

Unknown said...

Can I use melted butter instead of canola oil?

Langdon Cook said...

Amelia - Yes, but in my experience butter and oil are not always interchangeable in terms of the amounts. You'll need to experiment to get the right consistency.

susana said...

I just made dandelion pesto with the leaves, very nice! and getting ready to try the bread with the petals! should I wash them or not?
Thanks!

Langdon Cook said...

Susana - I don't bother washing the petals because they get soggy and hard to work with. You could try a quick rinse and then some serious salad spinner action...

Terry Reesa said...

It literally took hours to cook - can't understand why as I used exactly the ingredients listed. I put it in a 1lb loaf tin and it looked beautiful and high at 30 mins but the inside was mush. Maybe the tin was too small? Leaving it to cool now and hope to eat it tomorrow.