Last year was my first year of making dandelion honey. Now I am translating it in order for you to be able to make it to use in my groundbreaking recipe for vegan creamed honey.
There are a ton of dandelion honey recipes, I just want to make sure that you end up with a honey that actually tastes like honey. Most people will be very skeptical when they hear about dandelion honey. I was too. But trust me, if done right, this stuff tastes very much like honey.
Look at that beautiful yellow powder a.k.a. pollen. We want that and all the other fragile flower scent adding components in our honey. Not in our sink. So…
Do NOT wash the flowers.
To get little animals out, spread the flower buds on a kitchen towel for a while and they will crawl away. If you are afraid of pollution, Make sure to pick the flowers away from busy roads. If you are afraid of dog piss, consider it rather unlikely for dogs to piss in the middle of a dandelion feel and don’t pick flowers were dogs were typically mark their territory. A safe place will typically be a big field of dandelions if you are lucky enough to have that around. Also note that the 20 to 30 minutes of boiling will kill any bacteria left. And lastly, remember, that the bees won’t wash the flowers before they bring home the pollen and mix it with the regurgitated nectar when making their honey. So why should you? (Unless you live in an area infested by some sort of slug or insect which leaves a poison that you know won’t be neutralized by boiling. Then take your precautions)
Add other edible – and aromatic – flowers
Dandelion is one of the first flowers available in abundance for the bees in the spring. Depending on what area you live in, other flowers will be the ones you typically associate with the smell of honey. If possible you should add other edible flowers to the mix. Some that have a really strong scent. I live in the middle of a canola flower/rapeseed field this year so I have the opportunity to add those. And that really takes the honey to a whole new level, since canola honey is one of the most common bee honeys available in my country. So the honey association my brain makes when eating this homemade vegan honey is very strong. Other flowers to add are: Wild hibiscus flowers, lavender, Alaskan fire weed, meadowsweet and others. Disclaimer: please only consume flowers that you are 100% certain are edible. If you die from poisoning do not come back complaining that I didn’t warn you.
Adding apples in one form or another provides you with a more complex taste and also mimics some of the fruity acidity present in honey.
What about the green stuff?
Some recipes call for removing the green parts of the dandelions. While this can be done it is rather time-consuming. What I found through my experimentations experience was, that they do add a little chlorophyllic flavor (like a hint of Earl Grey tea), but I only found it a little overpowering in the batch where I left the flowers soaking in the flower juice overnight like some recipes call for. So I recommend leaving the green stuff on (like in the picture below) and then strain the flowers from the juice shortly after boiling it. This will save you a lot of work instead of having to cut them off.
If you insist on cuttin them off, only remove the bottom couple of millimeters (1/8″) or you risk cutting away the nectar.
One bee can carry 25 mg of pollen back to the hive in one flight. You can pick a lot more than that in a single trip to the front yard or wherever you happen to be blessed with dandelions. A bee will during its entire lifetime produce about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey. Consider that. When you are done with my recipe you will have produced at least 7,5 dl or 3.2 cups (and I know this is not a competition, but that’s 150 teaspoons – or 1800/12th teaspoons – if you really want to go there).
When picking dandelions – get the most flavor from them
– First of all, pick flowers away from busy roads. Also pick flowers away from where dogs will typically pee (lamp posts, hedges etc.)
– The warmer the weather the more nectar they contain. If possible go pick them on a warm sunny day.
– Before nipping off the flowers, gently tap it to shake off any little animals. Also have a quick look at the flowers and go for those with the least amount of habitants.
– Cut the flowers off just at the end of the stalk.
– The bigger the flower, the more nectar = yum!
– Theoretically, If you’re unable to pick enough flowers for one entire batch, you could put them in the fridge or even freezer along the way and save them for when you have enough. Some of the taste might get lost this way though and it’s my impression that boiling them directly after picking yields the most flavor.
– Pick flowers that are open. This way you access all the nice scents. This also means you can’t pick them in the evening, since they close up. Nap time! Also, you can’t pick them if a rain is coming (or happening) because they will close up to protect their pollen and nectar from washing away. (The same reason you shouldn’t wash them, see?)
How to make vegan honey
- Pick the flowers
- Boil them with water to harvest the fragrance of them.
- Strain the flowers away and reduce the flower water together with sugar and a splash of lemon.
How long to reduce it
I recommend taking your time with this. Bring it to a gentle simmer in the beginning and reduce that to only evaporation towards the end. This way the water will slowly but surely evaporatorate. When about 2/3 of the syrup is left, you need to keep an extra eye on it, because all of a sudden it gets really thick! This is also where you can start taking little samples out to check the consistency. You want it thick but still runny and you want it to be clear not dark (see pictures for reference). Thicker than agavesyrup, but definitely not spreadable. I want to say like an organic barley or corn syrup but of course I can’t know what that looks like in your area 😬 If you have used regular pure white sugar, your hunny will look lighter than in these pictures.
Check Consistency: Place a small plate or bowl in the refrigerator. When you want to test the consistency, you pour half a teaspoon syrup on the cold plate and it will quickly come to room temperature.
Color: The honey in these pictures are made with a light brown cane sugar. This yields a slightly darker color than when using pure white sugar. If you reduce the syrup too much, it will be very dark, not be transparent and also smell slightly burned sort of over caramelized.
Vegan dandelion honey
INGREDIENSER
- 100 dandelion flower heads (100 weigh about 100 g (3,5oz) medium to large heads)
- 2 apples (2 apples is about 500 g or 17 ounces. Cut into chunks. Seeds removed.)
- 1 l water (1 liter is 4 cups)
- 50 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice (50 ml is ust under 1/4 cup )
- 9 dl sugar (white or light brown cane sugar) (9 dl is 3.6 cups. Note that in some countries white sugar isn't vegan.)
- 1 micro pinch of salt
Preferably but optional if not easily accessible: Another bunch of edible, aromatic flowers. I added:
- 30-40 tops of canola/rapeseed flowers
SÅDAN GØR DU
- You don't need to remove the green stuff unless you want to soak flowers in the flower juice overnight. I didn't do this.
- Put flowers, apples, lemon juice and salt and pour over the water. Put on the lid and let it boil gently for 20-30 minutes.
- Strain away the flowers and apples, saving the flower water in a pan. Pour in the sugar and let it simmer. Don't put on the lid! You are allowed to stir it occasionally in the beginning, but only then. Recrystallization is just waiting to happen if you stir it too much once the water starts evaporating! You want to aim for a very low simmer. It can very quickly get to an aggressive boil, and we just want a gentle steam of water evaporating from it.<br> After several hours it should have reduced to about 2/3.
- When you have reached the desired consistency (as described in the blog post) turn off the heat and pour into smaller containers. Continue with turning it into vegan creamed hunny if you wish.
TIPS & NOTER
It got too thick!
If you accidentally reduced it too much, you can make it a bit thinner by adding some boiled water. But you may have crossed the line of no return, if it got very very thick because then it will have a slightly burnt taste and you won’t be able to get rid of that. Too thin is always better…
It got too thin!
If, when the honey has cooled down, you realize it is much too runny, there is always the option to put it back on the stove to let it evaporate more. This can be time consuming though. I stumbled upon a trick where you simply add a little (home)powdered sugar into the still hot dandelion sirup. This will melt and thicken the mix. You can also leave it on the kitchen table with a piece of cloth over to protect it from dust. During a couple of weeks it will evaporate even more. I have managed to make the creamed honey with a batch that I thought was way too runny so don’t worry too much about that.
And now that you’ve made a batch of beautiful aromatic dandelion honey, you are ready to take it to the next level: Vegan creamed hunny.
Hi
Thank you for the excellent recipe.
This was really fun to make. Thanks 🙂
This looks so fun! What do you think about using dried dandelion flowers?
Hmmmm in thinking it just might work🤗 but I’m pretty sure the fresh ones have a lot more flavour nuances 🙂
Best regards!
Nina
Hi! I was wondering if you think I could substitute a little bit of the white sugar for light brown sugar to make the honey have a darker color. Thank you!
Yes you could do that 🤗 and even darker sugar too.
Best regards
Nina
Lovely recipes. I also add fresh ginger to it. I love the combination of those flavours!
That does sound good! 😍
Hi. Do you know if this honey can be kept for a long period like real honey does? Or how much time does it last? Thanks!
Mine has been in the cupboards for years now!😅 So I’m pretty sure the high sugar content makes it practically impossible for it to go bad of you keep the hat clean 🤗
Apologies for assuming this was a German post. We Americans, myself at least, can be so uninformed. As i perused your website I immediately saw my grave error!! And this, after living in Belgium for six years 🤦♀️
I forgive you😜😘
Greetings from Virginia,
So much fun to plan my future dandelion honey excursion. I was excited to see your recipes online and want to try some others as well…I love your “grassroots” methods…very resourceful! I like to make my own vegan food as well, especially in this time of social isolation I find myself experimenting more and more.
Danke &
Auf wiedersehen!
Your welcome! ❤️🙌
And PS It’s “tak Og på gensyn!” In Danish 😅
What else can we use instead of sugar? Fructose or Xylitol or soaking dates? Thank you!
I don’t have any experience with other forms of sugar 🤭
I hope you’ll make some experiments.
Best regards
Nina
Thank you so much for this recipe, I can’t wait to try it but the flowers won’t be in bloom for a month or two. We have wild elderflower near by, how much in weight of flowers do you think I might need for this size of recipe? Many thanks!
Hi, Emma, I’m sorry for the late respons. I would estimate that you use the same amount in grams as stated in the ingredient list? But I have no idea if this may be too aromatic, though. Maybe you could replace a certain amount of the flowers with bags of chamomile tea which I have seen being used in other honey recipes 🙂
I hope you feel inspired enough to try out – your version of – the recipe 🙂
good luck!
Nina
Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply to my messages. I’m still baffled!!
I have made the syrup twice, the second time without the dandelion heads. Both were really worthwhile making. The apple certainly adds an authenticity missing from ‘honey’ that just relies on the caramelisation process. I recommend anyone to try it. No success, I’m afraid, with the set honey. I guess you have the Midas touch!
Regards
Terry
Be patient- I have batches from this summer that are just starting natural crystallization now after several months! I would stir daily until it starts getting cloudy and wait 🙂
Hi Nina
Since writing to you I came across the Peta website where they post what they say is an adaption of your set honey recipe. In your recipe you use ten parts of honey syrup and one part of powdered sugar. In theirs they use ten parts of honey syrup and thirty parts of powdered sugar. This isn’t an adaptation, it’s an annihilation! The product they end up with is only one quarter honey syrup. I can’t imagine you are happy to put your name to what they have done! Could it be that they were not able to make your recipe work?
Regards
Terry
Aaargh no! Thanks for the tip, I don’t even want to look at it LOL, but I will eventually to see what they’re up to 😉 but no it definitely won’t yield a result that could fool a honey farmer. What a shame, I hope people make my original recipe instead.
Best regards
Nina
Hi Nina
Thank you so much for sharing your discovery of how to turn dandelion honey into a set honey. I am intriged by the process and can’t work out why it happens!
It seems that the dandelion sryup you start with isn’t a supersaturated sucrose solution. Doesn’t it have to be to make crystals? When you make the syrup I take it that the sucrose gets turned into invert sugar. I have never been able to make invert sugar crystallise.
Can you solve these mysteries for me?
Many thanks
Terry.
Hi Terry, I love that you are so curious about this! Just like me LOL. Well, yes you would guess that you needed sucrose in it to get it to crystallize. In my research I found that a certain amount of sucrose was needed in order for the honey to crystallize properly. But I guess the syrup here crystallizes for another reason – so there are other factors at play, and sucrose it is not necessary for this reaction. The syrup actually recrystallizes (since it was crystallized sugar to begin with). Where as the honey was never crystallized, but liquid from the beginning, so it would need sucrose for the natural crystallization to appear. But in the syrup we are making, we begin with crystals, we break them down by boiling it to a syrup, and we then control the recrystallization what is bound to occur. And which would result in regular or bigger sized crystals if we didn’t control it. That’s all I can figure out – does that make sense?
Thank you for the recipe! I made it yesterday and i will make another one soon again.
As a former beekeeper i have tasted a lot of honeys. For my taste, there was a bit too much apple in it. I will use half of it with my next batch, or maybe without it and then mix the two batches.
Thanks for your feedback 🤗
Good idea! The acidity of different apples will vary so there’s that to …
All the best
Nina
What should I use the lemon juice for? It’s written among the ingredients, but not mentioned in the actual recipe…
Hi Jennifer, thanks for letting me know! You’re supposed to let it boil together with the flowers and apples. I added it to the recipe now 🙂
Hope you enjoy it
All the best
Nina
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe, can’t wait to try it! <3
I hope you enjoy it 🙂
All the best
Nina
… oh and also I hope you go ahead and try the crystallized/creamed version 🙂
https://plantepusherne.dk/how-to-make-actual-creamed-firm-vegan-honey/
Thank you so much. We don’t have a garden front or back but the front raised patio has an overgrowth of dandelions. I managed 100 flowers. I did take the green parts of, it was easy enough, cutting the green end off with scissors whilst holding the flower together in the other hand, then rolling the green parts off. I followed the recipe, except I left mine to steep overnight. It’s now reducing down, tastes lovely already, just very sweet as I think I added a little too much sugar, the conversion calculator to grams told me 900g. I’m sure it will be just fine. question, would the flavour improve over time, or will it stay the same? Just so I know whether to leave it a while before we eat it. My fussy six year old, Katie approves greatly. Hello from a cold and windy England. And thanks for this explanation and how to make with a lower flower yield as many dandelion honey recipes and methods start with at least 250 flowers.
Thanks for checking in! The taste stays about the same, so no need to wait 🙂 I had some sitting on the kitchen counter for a year and it still tasted lovely, although maybe a bit milder:)
I hadn’t thought about that, but you’re right when treating the flowers properly (i.e. not washing them and picking them when nectar content is at it’s highest) you get plenty taste from a smaller amount 🙂
All the best
Nina