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It took me about a 10 minutes to pick these! |
You will need: 2 heaping cups of fresh dandelion
petals (see note below - you'll need to gather about 4 cups whole
flowers) NOTE: Look for fully opened flowers, the bigger the better, for ease of preparation. Of course do NOT use any dandelions that have been sprayed with fertilizers or pesticides! |
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And another 10-15 minutes to cut the petals off. |
We'll want just the dandelion petals for this - not the whole flower head. You'll get SOME green sepals (wow, botany class was a long time ago - hope that is the correct term!), and that's fine - but try to minimize the amount of "green" and have mainly yellow petals for your infusion. It works best if you hold the flower by the end near the stem, and trim the petals into a bowl or cup, with sharp kitchen scisscors. All the dandelion blossoms stained my fingers yellow! |
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Pour boiling water over petals and let steep
from 30 minutes to 24 Place jars and lids on rack in pan or stockpot deep enough to cover them with about two inches of water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, keeping the jars hot until ready to fill. |
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To make the jelly, stir lemon juice (I actually used lime, because that's what I had on hand, and it worked quite nicely!) and sugar into reserved infusion in a two-quart nonreactive or stainless steel pan. Bring to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Add the liquid pectin and continue to boil two minutes, skimming any foam that may rise to the surface. As you can see - my infusion is NOT such a pretty color. I decided to add a bit of food coloring - about 20 drops of yellow. I've also seen people use green, but prefer the yellow. To me, Dandelion Jelly is honey-like, in flavor, so between that and the color of the blossoms, a yellow-colored jelly makes sense to me. :) |
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Ladle quickly into jars to
within about 1/8 inch from the top; clean each rim and threads of
the jar as it's filled, and place flat lid and ring on each before
filling the next. Screw band on tightly and invert jar on tea towel
for about five to 10 minutes. Jars should seal and lids should pop
shut within 10 minutes as they cool. If they do not seal, you can
place them in a hot water bath for 10 minutes or place in the refrigerator.
Sealed jars will last up to one year in a cool, dark place. Put any unsealed jelly in the refrigerator. it should keep about three weeks. Makes four or five half-pint jars. |
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