Dandelion Syrup - Homemade Recipe (2024)

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This Dandelion Syrup is delicious on pancakes and waffles – it’s an early Spring treat that’s easy to make!

You might already know that we are lovers of the Dandelion and use the flowers in cooking and even making wine. And now, we’re making Dandelion Syrup – it’s like a little ray of sunshine whenever we dip into our jar of homemade syrup.

And I want to show you how easy it is to make your own syrup from these pretty yellow flowers! Make a batch this Spring (or two!) and store your jars full of syrup in the fridge.

Why You’ll Love this Dandelion Syrup

With a few simple ingredients, you can make this delicious homemade syrup which your family will love. We use it on waffles and pancakes of course, but there are several other ways to use it.

Pour a little dandelion syrup over hot oatmeal or enjoy it as a topping over ice cream. Sweeten your coffee or tea with a spoonful for a warm treat. Drizzle a bit over coffee cake!

Making syrup is a fun activity for kids to do and help with – and it’s never too early to get them helping in the kitchen.

And if you want to try more delicious ways to use Dandelions, here’s our Dandelion Jelly recipe – delicious spread on toast and muffins. If you’ve got access to lots and lots of flowers like we do here, why not try making your own homemade Dandelion Wine? It’s light and refreshing with a citrusy flavor.

We’ve even got a Dandelion Flower recipe book, with lots of different ways to use these pretty flowers.

Let’s move on to the Dandelion Syrup; I just a couple of things to mention before we delve into the recipe. Mostly having to do with picking dandelion flowers! Just a few important things to note when picking.

How to Pick Dandelion Flowers for Jelly

The most important thing about gathering dandelions for making jelly is WHERE to get the flowers. Because we don’t use any chemicals on our lawns or in our gardens, the flowers we pick are as organic as can be.

Dandelion Heads Picking Tips:

It’s best to pick the flowers in the heat and sun of late morning or afternoon, so that the flower heads are fully open.
After picking, spread the flowers out on an old towel for 15 minutes or so. This will allow any ants or other bugs hiding in the flowers to crawl off and away.
Yes, if you pick organic flowers, there will be a few bugs
Petals can be stored in the freezer for up to one month.
If you leave a significant stem on them they can be stored in water overnight (they will close when it gets dark).
You can store the flowers in a plastic bag in the fridge for a couple days (they will close).
Petals can be stored in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Dandelion Syrup Recipe

This recipe takes two days – one day to gather and prepare the flowers, then let them steep in water. The next day, it’s time to cook the syrup.

Dandelion Syrup Ingredients

4 cups prepared dandelion petals (roughly 8 cups whole flowers)*
2 ½ cups granulated sugar
4 cups water
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Prepare the flowers:

Day One – Steeping the Petals

On the first day, pick the flowers and spread out on a towel or old sheet for 15 minutes or so.

Cut the flower buds apart to use just the petals, discarding the green base, the green leaves and any portion of the stem. You don’t want to use the green bits or they will make the mixture bitter. The easiest way we’ve found to do this is to cut off the base and peel the remaining green away.

Rinse the petals in a bowl of cold water and then put in a fine mesh strainer to drain off.

Combine petals with 4 cups water in a medium size pot. Over medium heat, bring to a boil, then turn down to let simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove from heat, cover and then let it cool completely. Put the covered pan in the fridge to allow the petals and liquid to steep for 24 hours.

Day Two – Making Dandelion Syrup

Make the syrup:

The next day, strain the liquid out through a fine mesh sieve or a couple layers of cheese cloth, into a clean saucepan. Squeeze the flowers together to fully extract all the liquid. Set aside the petals.

To the liquid in the pot, add the sugar and lemon juice.Bring mixture to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Reduce heat to medium low and cook until reduced by half (or more for a thicker consistency closer to honey). This will take somewhere between 1-2 hours. Just depends on how thick you want the syrup.

Remove from heat and store in a glass container in the fridge for up to 1 month. I use a pint mason jar to store our syrup in. I just added one of these plastic pour spout lids – perfect! Plus, they work on almost every brand of mason jar there is!

You can read about the benefits of using Dandelion here.

Dandelion Syrup Recipe