Honey can be very versatile. It is delicious to substitute honey for sugar in most recipes. Using honey in your own recipes instead of sugar requires a little experimentation but is easily done. After 15 plus years of cooking with honey, our family has come to realize that honey is much sweeter than sugar. As a result, we have found that the general rule for using honey instead of sugar is as follows: For every 1 cup of sugar, substitute 1/2 to 2/3 cup honey. (We usually start with ½ and then adjust to taste, if needed.
When cooking or baking with honey, it is important to note that as honey is heated, it becomes liquid, so you must reduce the liquid in your recipe. One way to know how to do this is to heat up your honey to the point of just making it liquid, being sure not to overheat it, and then adding it to the recipe along with the other wet ingredients. You will need to decrease the liquid somewhere in your recipe by about a quarter of a cup for every cup of honey used.
Another important fact about honey is that it is acidic. Raw honey has a pH of 4.5-7.0. A lot of people recommend adding ¼ tsp of baking soda for every cup of honey used. However, our family usually doesn’t use this step.
Mountain Spring Honey Raspberry Jam
4 Cups prepared raspberries,
4 1/2 Tbsp powdered pectin,
3 C honey.
Crush raspberries in a pan. Stir in powdered pectin. Bring mixture to a boil. Add honey. Return to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Can or use fresh. It makes 3 pint jars.
In the Ball Blue Book of preserving, it recommends that “when pectin is added, 2 cups of honey can replace 2 cups sugar in most recipes (p. 28).”
This is a delicious way to use your raspberries and honey. Our family loves it on honey whole wheat bread.
Sweet and Salty Healthy Natural Popcorn
½ C popcorn kernels
⅓ C olive oil
¼ C liquified honey
Salt
Pop the popcorn and place in a large bowl. Lightly heat ¼ C of honey until it is liquified. Mix honey and olive oil together in a small bowl. Drizzle honey and oil mixture over popcorn alternately salting and stirring until mixture is gone. Enjoy.
Jumble Jill’s
1 ¼ C instant powdered milk
¾ C honey
1 C peanut butter.
Mix powdered milk, honey and peanut butter together in a medium sized bowl. Roll into balls and place on a lightly greased pan. Enjoy. You may also add chopped nuts, or shredded coconut if desired. Keep remainder refrigerated until used.