Dandelion Muffins

This is quite probably the fastest turnaround I’ve had while posting: I made these muffins this morning and just had one for dessert. There’s normally a much longer lag between the time I make a recipe and the time I post about it, but this is different, because it’s a very seasonal recipe. If I only post about it when I get around to it, it might be too late for people to make it this year.

So, dandelion muffins. I read about this on Tea and Cookies, which linked to Fat of the Land for the recipe. Dandelions are edible, of course, and the leaves are often served in salads, but it had never occurred to me to use the flowers for baking. So early this morning, having decided it was now or never, I picked a bunch of dandelions of the front lawn of the building in which I live and got to work. I plucked the yellow petals from the center, pulling up some fluff along with them (just make sure not to include the green parts). The recipe calls for 1 cup, but that’s not set in stone: a little more, a little less, it’s fine.

These muffins were easy to make, very original, quite fun, beautiful and really good. They’re not sweet (only ¼ cup of honey for the whole dozen), so you could serve them as bread rolls with a meal if you want. I just had one served with butter and honey, which was delicious, and I plan on having some with jam for breakfast tomorrow.

2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup dandelion petals
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup canola oil
¼ cup honey
scant 1 ½ cups (lactose-free) milk





Butter a muffin tin and preheat the oven to 400 °F.

Combine the dry ingredients in large bowl, including the petals, and mix. Make sure to separate clumps of petals.




In a separate bowl, mix together egg, oil, honey and milk.



Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and stir. The batter should be fairly wet and lumpy.



Pour into the muffin tin. Bake about 20-25 minutes (check doneness with a toothpick).