Thursday 22 April 2010

Recipe 13 - Dandelion Bread

Over the last week or two there's been a noticeable improvement in the weather here. I've had this recipe bookmarked for a while now and I was really happy to notice the dandelions have started flowering.

It looks pretty good right? This simple recipe comes from a blog called Fat of the Land about foraging for your own food. It was adapted from a book called The Dandelion Celebration by Peter Gail. Rather than true bread this is actually a soda bread. That means it'll be quicker and easier to make and She won't get nervous as she seems to do at the idea of making full on yeast based breads. Hopefully we'll make something yeasty soon though. I make quite a lot of bread and would like to turn Her into a bread baker too.

This recipe will make a barely sweet loaf. I'm looking forward to a morning walk to gather the blooms for this. It'll beat a trip to the supermarket for ingredients! I think I'll bump up the amount of petals, assuming I don't get bored part way through collecting them. Perhaps a cup and a half or so. It comes to a little less than 2000 calories total.

Dandelion Bread

Before making this recipe, you'll need to harvest a cup of dandelion petals. This shouldn't take more than 15 minutes with the right flowers and technique. Choose tall, robust dandelions that have been allowed to grow unmolested. Abandoned lots and field margins are good places to look. Generally the presence of dandelions indicates herbicides are not in use, but roadside specimens can contain the residue of other chemicals. Choose your spots wisely. You'll want to harvest in the morning, before the flowers have fully opened. Grasp the yellow part of the flower (the petals) and twist away from the green sepals and stem. Discard any greenery. I prefer the bread to the muffins.

240g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dandelion petals (or more)
60ml canola oil
4 tbsp honey
1 egg
350ml milk

Combine dry ingredients in large bowl, including petals, and mix. Make sure to separate clumps of petals. In separate bowl mix together milk, honey, oil, and beat in egg. Add liquid ingredients to dry and stir. Batter should be fairly wet and lumpy. Pour into buttered bread tin or muffin tin. Bake at 400 degrees. A dozen muffins will take 20-25 minutes. Bread will take 25-30 or more minutes. At 25 minutes, check doneness of bread with a toothpick. If still too moist inside, lower oven temperature and continue to bake, checking every five minutes.

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