Here's what I ended up doing:
Low-Sugar Dandelion (Jelly) Jam:
2 Cups loose-packed dandelion petals
2 Cups boiling water
Juice and zest of one large-ish lemon
1 1/3 Cup sugar
1/2 packet of powdered low-sugar pectin (I used Ball brand "No-Sugar Needed Fruit Pectin"
Get your children to behead every bright yellow dandelion in sight. Then comes the hard part: take the flowers inside and carefully pull out the yellow petals until you have two cups worth. (You can include the whitish fluffy stuff, too, but DON'T get ANY green from the leaves or sepals, or you WILL regret it. Or so I'm told. :P ) Put a movie on for the kids during this part, because it will take awhile.
When you finally have two-cups-worth, put them in a medium bowl and pour the two cups of boiling water in. Steep overnight. Next day, strain through muslin (or if you're cheap like me, a simple flour-bag towel will do), into a large sauce pan. Discard petals. Add lemon zest and juice to the pan. (I wanted mine a little "chunky", so I even threw in some of the pulp. If you prefer a smoother jam consistency, you could put the zest in with the dandelion petals the night before.) Add sugar and pectin and boil according to package directions.
There! Done! Here's what I ended up with:
And, because I was already pushing my limits with this attempt (laziness and terror holding equal sway), I did not attempt to actually can it. Just dumped it all into a big jar and have been eating it on my toast nearly every day since.
In case you are wondering, it tastes tart and lemon-y. I honestly wonder how much leaving out the dandelions would affect the taste in the long run... (Lazy.)
6 comments:
Genius way to get rid of those pesky dandelions. But yeah, I was wondering what kind of taste they give to it. Perhaps I'll have to take a jaunt over to your house to snitch some:)
Cool! I've never known someone who's made dandelion jam. Good for you! jam is VERY easy, by the way. Your creative self need not be afraid of it. Just a lot of fruit and sugar: can't go wrong!
Wow! What a great way to get rid of dandelions! It sounds like it tastes good and it sure looks pretty :o) Give yourself a "high five" from me ;o)
How fun! I've never even heard of dandelion jam/jelly. I want to try it!
Hey, do you know what the nutritional breakdown is on dandelion jelly? And do you know if it is known for any allergic reactions? Id love to make this, but I'd like to gather a bit more info on it. Thanks!!
Laurel~
Sorry to take so long to get back to you! I don't, unfortunately, have any information that can really help you out! I tend not to measure very accurately as is, so the nutritional information for ME would probably vary from batch to batch. :/ (If you are really interested in finding out, I know there are a multitude of recipe sites--like food.com--that will automatically input a rough nutritional chart when you enter a recipe. Since I didn't really originate this recipe, just modified it, I'd have no problem at all with you listing it on one of those sites; you may want to double check with the original author I reference in the post, just in case, though. ;D )
As for allergies, again, I'm afraid I have no definite info for you, but off the top of my head, I wouldn't think it would cause reactions very commonly. (That could be that I'm just relating it in my head to honey which has a beneficial effect on allergies, though...)
Thanks for the great query!
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