A Different Kind of Weed Brownie

Last April, we said that it wasn't really spring until we had had our dandelion fix, which is an assertion we still stand by.  But what happens when we haven't fully scratched our itch, but Katie is tired of eating dandelion pancakes (or possibly just pancakes in general), and the dandelions are still blooming?  We've got to figure out other foods to put dandelions in.

We've been intrigued (and impressed) by desserts that feature vegetables: carrot cake (obviously), red velvet cake with beets, frosting colored with spinach or beets, and Katie even makes a pretty mean zucchini brownie.

So we thought, "Hey!  It seems like we can take a recipe for some kind of cake-type thing, add a bunch of shredded veggies (which would also be a good name for a band), and have a dessert for which it's easier to justify eating four or five pieces at once!"  Also, it was April 20 last week here in Colorado, which seemed to carry some sort of significance that we can't quite put our finger on...and so the concept of the dandelion brownie was born.

We started with about 3.5 cups of dandelion flowers, which gave us about 3 cups of petals

Then we started making a regular brownie recipe.

We added the dandelion petals at the same time as the flour and chocolate chips, but the batter was really dry so we also added a half cup of milk.

The milk brought the batter back to the right consistency, despite all the extra nutrition (also here) we packed in.

We spread the batter out into a greased pan...

And baked it!

Since the petals are so mildly-flavored, they hardly affect the rich chocolatey taste at all. The brownies taste just like brownies, but the petals are visible as little yellow streaks.  They're like little pieces of confetti for celebrating healthy desserts!

The recipe (based off brownies from Glorious Treats):
4 eggs
1.25 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup butter
2.25 cups sugar
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups (one 12-oz bag) semisweet chocolate chips
3 cups dandelion petals
0.5 cup milk

Beat together eggs and cocoa.  Melt butter, mix in salt, sugar, vanilla, and baking powder, then mix together with eggs and cocoa mix.  Add flour, chocolate chips, dandelion petals, and milk, mix well.  Smooth batter out into a 10" x 16" cookie sheet, and bake at 350 °F for 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.



What types of vegetables do you put into your desserts?  What other dishes do you put dandelions in?  Let us know in the comments section below!