When Bonnie brought us a bottle of her Dandelion Jelly to sample a while back, I was skeptical. Mind you, dandelion leaves are really, really, delicious when cooked as a green vegetable with Jiggs Dinner – as long as the leaves are harvested in early summer. BUT I have always found the dandelion flower to be extremely bitter when used for jams or wines. UNTIL NOW!
It is absolutely delicious! Bonnie found the original recipe on a Facebook site. From there she experimented and perfected it to suit her taste. You really should give it a try. You won’t be disappointed. Thanks so much for sharing it, Bonnie.
Ingredients
3 cups dandelion petals
4 cups boiling water
4 cups sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 pkg (1.75 oz) pectin powder
TIP: (For best results, harvest the first crop of dandelion flowers from your garden in late Spring. Be sure to only use yellow flower heads)
Directions
Place flower heads in a large bowl; pour the 4 cups of boiling water over the petals. Allow to cool and refrigerate for 24 hours. Strain the flower heads using cheesecloth (or curtain material). Squeeze the petals to extract as much of the dandelion tea as possible. The yield will be between 3 ½ to 4 cups.
Pour the tea into a two quart pot, add lemon juice and pectin and bring to a boil. Add sugar and return to a rolling boil for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat and pour into sterilized jars. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.
Makes 6 half-pint jelly jars.
