I’m always on the lookout for new things to try with Phoebe and we’d recently seen a few people try their hand at making homemade dandelion honey! We thought we’d give it a go too.
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You might have these bright, yellow-headed flowers growing in your lawn or in a nearby field. You’ll need to pick around 150 flower heads for your honey - you don’t need the stalk. Phoebe and I chatted about the lifecycle of a dandelion and we even found some seed-head ones to blow on while we collected our flowers.
Before putting the flower heads into a pot, set them out for 10 minutes to let any little insects know it’s time to leave! You don’t need to wash the flowers, as you want the pollen for your honey. We added 3 cut up apples (I chose red-skinned ones, but you can use whichever apples you like) into the pot with the dandelions, with 75ml of lemon juice and 1.5 litres of cold water. We simmered this on the hob for just over 30 minutes.
We then strained the liquid into another pot using coffee filters (this was what we had here at home) before adding 450g of sugar! Simmer this fragrant, sugary liquid for about 3 and a half hours so it reduces down. It will need to have reduced by at least half so your honey will thicken up nicely.
Disclaimer: I made the mistake of taking the liquid off too early and it ended up too runny when I checked it the next morning! I added some brown sugar and brought the liquid back onto the heat for another hour.
Before pouring your honey into jars, you’ll need to sterilise them. We washed our jars in hot, soapy water before putting them into a 160 degree (fan) oven for 15 minutes. We popped the lids into a bowl of just boiled water for 3 minutes. Pour your honey into the hot jars, let it cool and then enjoy!
