Niko and I started by harvesting as many dandelion flowers as we could, and put them all in a colander to give them a good rinse.
We pulled off the hard green flower bases, and separated out all the pretty yellow and fluffy white flowers. Dandelions are actually related to sunflowers, as each of those dandelion heads are composed of many, many small individual flowers.
I omitted the oil from this recipe completely, substituting in a half cup of applesauce.
One half-cup of honey.
Two eggs.
One teaspoon vanilla.
One cup unbleached whole wheat flour.
One half cup oats.
Give it all a good mix...
Add in half of a cup of dandelion flowers.
Mix the flowers in.
And spoon on to a cookie sheet.
Bake at 375* for 10-15 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.
Admire the pretty little flecks of yellow dandelion flowers in your cookies.
And enjoy!
These were pretty interesting. They were fun to make, and didn't taste bad either! They tasted very strongly of honey, and had a soft chewy texture like the top of a muffin. This was a fun ingredient to try out, and I can see adding dandelion flowers to things like muffins more in the future!
Dandelion Flower Cookies
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup unbleached whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup dry oatmeal
1/2 cup dandelion flowers
Preheat oven to 375°F. Blend oil and honey and beat in the two eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, oatmeal and dandelion flowers. Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls onto a lightly oiled cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes.
3 comments:
The cookies are interesting aren't they! They wouldn't make my favorite cookie list just on taste--maybe they are TOO chewy? I'm not sure, but they certainly win for "novelty" factor! I know that when we get dandelions this spring the children will want to do them again.
I think I like your idea of adding them to one of our regular muffin recipes though... Great thought there!
Love your pictures of the step by step too! I never have good patience for doing great photo sequences like that... I always forget to photograph some key step--like the finished product, lol!
Since we couldn't taste the flowers themselves at all, I really think it was the base cookie recipe that needs tweaking. I think the flowers by themselves are a fun and colorful addition to a recipe though, so the next time I have an overgrowth of dandelions I will try using them again. I had fun researching the whole concept of cooking with dandelions. The flowers, leaves, and roots are all edible. They're not native to the Americas, and there is a bit of a debate over whether or not early settlers brought them over intentionally, as they have been used for centuries in European countries as teas, salves, or tinctures to treat a variety of conditions. They're chock full of vitamins, minerals, and beneficial chemical compounds though! The idea of cooking with wild ingredients intrigues me; gathering wild mushrooms, making soup out of stinging nettles, or collecting fiddleheads to saute... it just makes me feel resourceful or something! :)
Wow, I have never even heard of dandelion cookies! You get major points for creativity and willingness to be adventurous. I do remember my late aunt in Virginia talking about dandelion wine, though, so that's one more recipe you might check into :)
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