I have had several posts show up on my Facebook page lately about using dandelions as food. From young greens in salad to frying the battered flowers. Today I happened across several posts on making dandelion honey. The people making it were doing so as they were vegan. Not vegan here but it set off a lightbulb in my head that perhaps I could keto up the process and make a sugar free honey. The idea overall sounded crazy but with plenty of time to spare today and dandelions a plenty it was time to give it a go.
Ingredients
Here are the rest of the ingredients. I used a blend of about 2/3 allulose and 1/3 golden monk fruit sweetener. If you aren't doing sugar free you could use a blend of light brown cane sugar and regular sugar.
Several recipes I found called for trimming all of the green from the bottom of the blossom , boiling a few minutes and steeping overnight. This one said it was find to leave the green part on and no need to steep overnight. Add the water, lemon juice, dandelion flowers and pinch of salt and boil for 20 to 30 minutes. It looks pretty disgusting at this stage lol but on I went.
After about 25 minutes I strained out the jicama and dandelion flowers. Press them out really good to get all the goodness. This is when you determine how much sweetener to use. I went by volume. I had about 2 1/2 cups of liquid so I added 2 1/2 cups of the sweetener which i ended up bumping up by about another 1/4 cup. I simmered for about an hour and then bumped it to a gentle boil. You stir it at first to dissolve sweetener initially but then quit stirring for the duration. Too much stirring will cause crystallization. You are working to reduce by about 1/3 or so. You check readiness by putting a plate in the frig and getting it nice and cold. When you drizzle a spoonful on there it comes up to room temp quickly. When that is at the consistency you want you are done. Pour hot into jars and let cool.
Ok so I had no real belief that this would taste much like honey. I thought best case it would be edible and just like a sweet syrup. This stuff is definitely flavored like honey!! It gets a beautiful medium amber color and is rich and floral. I think the jicama did give it the slightest hint of apple as well. This may just be the keto millionaire idea LOL. I will be making a LOT more for friends and as gifts for sure. My neighbors wont need to spray for dandelions I will be picking them all.
Thanks for looking and reading through this strange adventure :)
Ingredients
- About 100 medium to large dandelion flours (about 3.5 oz. by weight)
- 1 lbs of jicama cubed (I used this to sub in for apples, jicama is very low in carbs but has a hint of sweet apple flavor to so I thought it would work well)
- 4 cups of water
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 to 3.5 cups of sugar substitute (depends on yield of extract water)
- pinch of salt
Here are the rest of the ingredients. I used a blend of about 2/3 allulose and 1/3 golden monk fruit sweetener. If you aren't doing sugar free you could use a blend of light brown cane sugar and regular sugar.
Several recipes I found called for trimming all of the green from the bottom of the blossom , boiling a few minutes and steeping overnight. This one said it was find to leave the green part on and no need to steep overnight. Add the water, lemon juice, dandelion flowers and pinch of salt and boil for 20 to 30 minutes. It looks pretty disgusting at this stage lol but on I went.
After about 25 minutes I strained out the jicama and dandelion flowers. Press them out really good to get all the goodness. This is when you determine how much sweetener to use. I went by volume. I had about 2 1/2 cups of liquid so I added 2 1/2 cups of the sweetener which i ended up bumping up by about another 1/4 cup. I simmered for about an hour and then bumped it to a gentle boil. You stir it at first to dissolve sweetener initially but then quit stirring for the duration. Too much stirring will cause crystallization. You are working to reduce by about 1/3 or so. You check readiness by putting a plate in the frig and getting it nice and cold. When you drizzle a spoonful on there it comes up to room temp quickly. When that is at the consistency you want you are done. Pour hot into jars and let cool.
Ok so I had no real belief that this would taste much like honey. I thought best case it would be edible and just like a sweet syrup. This stuff is definitely flavored like honey!! It gets a beautiful medium amber color and is rich and floral. I think the jicama did give it the slightest hint of apple as well. This may just be the keto millionaire idea LOL. I will be making a LOT more for friends and as gifts for sure. My neighbors wont need to spray for dandelions I will be picking them all.
Thanks for looking and reading through this strange adventure :)