After reading Anna's post about dandelion greens in salads, I've been eyeing the weed greens everywhere I go, considering how and whether I can start foraging for them. I'm still pretty intimidated by them, but I love seeing yet another use for the plant—and this time, it's being used in a highly unexpected way: as a syrup. I can imagine this being a great ingredient to use to sweeten salad dressings for a hit of spring and to drizzle over the top of toast with butter, as Manuela says. But since she's the expert, let's here more from her about this deliciousness.

This syrup is great on toast, over pancakes or even to sweeten a cake. It takes a bit of time to make, but why not use it as an excuse to involve your friends or even kids in the process? Picking dandelion petals was definitely my favorite childhood spring experience! I live in Tyrol, Austria and grew up with these specialties—this syrup is a family recipe. I've found that while most older people or farmers might know about this syrup, younger people generally do not. It's inexpensive to make and it will add a twist to your pancakes or toast in the morning. —Manuela Oberhofer

Dandelion Syrup

4 cups of dandelion petals
4 cups of water
1 lemon
7 cups of sugar

Remove all the green stuff from the dandelion petals. Cut the lemon into thick slices. Put water, dandelion petals and lemon slices in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the dandelion juice through a cheesecloth or fine-mesh strainer, making sure that you don't have any solids in it. Let this dandelion juice cool down completely.

In a heavy saucepan, brown 2 cups of sugar over low heat (carefully, this burns easily). Stir the sugar until it starts melting. Don't let the caramel get too dark. Then, slowly (!) add your dandelion juice to it. Be careful, it will start steaming and making all sorts of cooking noise. Add the rest of the sugar to this mix and bring carefully to a boil. Then reduce heat and let simmer. Stir occasionally to dissolve all the sugar. Simmer everything for 1-2 hours to get a syrup or honey texture. Watch the cooking process at all times--this can boil over easily.

While the syrup is simmering it is difficult to see the final texture. Here is a way to test if the texture is right: With a metal spoon get a little bit of the hot syrup. Let it cool on a cold surface (e.g., a plate). The syrup will have a honey-like texture if it is ready. Otherwise it will stay runny even when cooled down and you need to cook it longer.

Once your syrup is ready, put it into glass jars and let it cool down. You can vary the amount of sugar depending on the desired sweetness and texture. The more sugar, the easier you will achieve a honey-like texture. If you prefer a runny syrup, use less sugar and cook for less time.
 

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