Dandelion Bread

Baking with wild foods is an exciting new adventure for me, so when I saw the first dandelions popping up I couldn’t resist trying my hand at dandelion bread. We all have access to an over abundance of dandelions, but you can’t always be certain they aren’t sprayed or chemical free. The best place to pick your dandelions is your yard, but if you don’t have one (like me) try to find a spray free zone.

Ingredients

Makes 2 loaves

  • 4 cups of flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1-1/2 to 2 cups of dandelion petals
  • 3/4 cup of applesauce (or vegetable oil)
  • 3/4 cup of sweetener (brown sugar, honey etc)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2-2/3 cups of milk (I used almond coconut milk)

Note: Most of the recipes I found called for honey, but my husband is a teacher and I like to be able to take what I make to school. I also substituted applesauce for the vegetable oil most recipes called for.

Instructions

  • Gather your dandelions from you location of choice. You only need the yellow flower head (my son had a blast helping). Due to the high populations of dandelions it’s one of the few herbs that you can’t over harvest.
  • Wash your flowers and let them dry (I used a salad spinner to speed up the process).
  • Next you’ll want to separate the petals from the green portion of the flower head. This job is a bit tedious, but it’s okay if you get a bit of green in with the petals. You will need 1-1/2 to 2 cups of petals.
  • Preheat oven to 400 F
  • Combine flour, baking powder, salt and dandelion petals in one bowl and mix well.
  • Combine your applesauce (or oil), sweetener, eggs and milk in another bowl.
  • Add your dry ingredients to your wet and mix well.
  • Pour your batter into well greased bread pans.
  • Bake for 20 minutes at 400 F and then reduce the temperature to 350 for the next 20-25 minutes.
  • Allow to cool on a wire rack.
  • Slice and enjoy!