After an initial experiment baking with dandelion flowers – I made dandelion biscuits – I decided to drop the idea of dandelion baked goods because the flowers didn’t seem to add anything to the final product – no taste, no texture. But this week the dandelions are blooming again, looking so bright and inviting and delicious that I thought, why not give baking one more try?

I decided on cookies this time. It’s easy to find recipes for dandelion cookies online, but they usually call for just 1/2 cup of dandelions. I wanted to make my cookies as dandelion-y as possible, so I ended adapting a carrot cookie recipe that called for a full cup of carrots. I just used dandelions instead.

I ate a few flowers straight. They were sweet but had no particular flavor.

The cookies came out OK, tasting of vanilla and brown sugar, but with no hint of dandelion at all.

If you want to try this, you’ll have no trouble finding a dandelion cookie or carrot cookie recipe online. But I think I’ll stick to enjoying dandelions in my salad.