Discover honey

What it is:
There are many types of honey, which is the unrefined nectar from plants as gathered, modified and stored in honeycombs by honey bees.

Liquid honey
Liquid honey comes from the honeycomb and is strained for clarity. It's the most widely produced form in North America and blends into a variety of foods, making it convenient for cooking and baking.

Infused honey
Infused honey has herbs, spices or peels added to flavour it by steeping. Just a few of the possibilities include mint, ginger-lime, rosemary, cinnamon-clove and hot pepper.

Creamed honey
Creamed honey is 100 per cent honey crystallized under controlled conditions. It is thicker than liquid honey and, at room temperature, is ideal for spreading.

Flavoured honey
Flavoured honey depends on where it was gathered, such as from clover, buckwheat, alfalfa, basswood and raspberry. It may be white, golden, amber or brown. Usually, the paler the honey, the milder the flavour.

Comb honey
Comb honey is natural honey sealed in hexagonal beeswax built by bees in the hive. Purchased in wooden or plastic frames, it is also available in containers as a mixture of liquid honey and pieces of comb honey, known as chunk honey.

How to store:
• Store honey in tightly closed container in a dry place at room temperature. Freezing in sealed airtight container does not affect colour or flavour but may speed up crystallization.

• Liquid honey will crystallize over time, largely due to the ratio of naturally occurring sugars to water. While it is perfectly fine to use it in this cloudy, granular form, you can return it to its liquid state by heating the jar in hot water until it liquifies.

How to use:
Substituting
Since honey is sweeter than sugar by volume, you can use less. To substitute honey for sugar in recipes, use about three-quarters as much honey as you would sugar and reduce the liquid by one-quarter. As well, in baking, add ? tsp (2 mL) baking soda for every
1 cup (250 mL) honey used and reduce oven temperature by 25ºF (10ºC) to prevent overbrowning.

For baking
Use light-coloured honey for white cakes and biscuits, and dark-hued ones in strong-flavoured recipes, such as gingerbread, honey cakes, fruit cakes and chocolate-based items.

Photo: Ricotta Honey Cheesecake
Photography by Yvonne Duivenvoorden

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