Dandelion Muffins Recipe

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We were so excited to finally have enough dandelions blooming so we could harvest some to make a batch of these delicious dandelion muffins! The first dandelions of the season started blooming a few weeks ago. At first there were only a few so we didn’t pick any so our honeybees had enough flowers to feed on until the other spring flowers started blooming. Finally our yard and meadow were filled with the bright sunshine dots of dandelions glowing in the spring sunshine. The kids were so thrilled to pick dandelions with a purpose!

On our homestead, we love dandelions! Dandelions are one of the first wild plants we get to harvest after our long, cold winters in Montana. We love to eat them in pancakes, tea, jelly, syrup, dandelion rhubarb pie, and infuse them for our medicinal dandelion salve. I love to bake so every week I try to make a homemade baked treat for our family to have for breakfast or snacks. This week’s delicious treat was dandelion muffins. Little B devoured them, which is remarkable since he’s a picky two year old eater! 

Harvesting Dandelions to Eat

For this recipe, we only need the yellow flower head and not the dandelion greens. Dandelion flowers usually close up at night so it is best to harvest them during the day once the flowers are fully opened. To harvest the dandelion flowers, gently pull the flower head up and it will snap off the stem. We harvest dandelion flowers from low traffic areas of the yard away from any roads or areas where our dogs may have been. We use a bucket or basket to put our dandelion flower heads in when harvesting. 

When using dandelion flowers in recipes, we try to only use the yellow petals. The small green leaves at the base of the flower are bitter which can cause the food to be bitter when you don’t want it to. If a few tiny bits of the green leaves are mixed in with the flower petals that is fine, you just don’t want a lot of them. To remove the petals, hold the dandelion flower at the green base in one hand and use your other hand to either pull the yellow petals out or use kitchen scissors to cut the yellow petals off. Place the yellow petals in a measuring cup and stop harvesting once you have one cup of dandelion flower petals. We put the green base and any little leaves we find in the food scrap bucket for our neighbor’s goats. 

Dandelion Muffins Recipe

These dandelion muffins make a great breakfast food or snack. This recipe makes one dozen muffins. This recipe is adapted from a berry muffin recipe found in one of my favorite cookbooks,Simply in Season.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 TBS baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup plus 1 TBS sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/4 cup coconut oil, warmed to a liquid 

1/4 cup honey

1 cup dandelion flower petals

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Combine the flour, oats, baking powder, salt and 1/4 cup sugar in a bowl. 
3. In a separate bowl, mix the egg, milk, honey and coconut oil. Whisk and mix well. 
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir until mixed without over mixing. 
5. Fold in the dandelion flower petals. 
6. Prepare the muffin pan by greasing or lining with muffin wrappers.
7. Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full. 
8. Sprinkle the muffin tops with a light sprinkling of sugar with the remaining 1 TBS sugar.
9. Bake the muffins at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. 

 What are your favorite ways to eat dandelions? 

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