Honey Treats You can Make at Home

Making Your Own Mead and More!

Honey has been a staple in the human diet for thousands of years and even though we have switched to refined sugar and other substances as our sweeteners of choice, honey still remains a popular option in many recipes. For those individuals who have stepped into the realm of beekeeping, they may be quick to realize that the honey produced from even a single hive is more than they can consume and they may need some fresh ideas of how to use the honey they have leftover.

Honey and Carrots

Adding honey to carrots helps to bring out the natural sweetness in the vegetable. Most often, carrots are roasted in the oven using a honey glaze or steamed and tossed in a honey sauce that also contains orange juice and spices. This combination is almost guaranteed to please a hungry family that isn’t so keen on eating their vegetables or as a side dish for a dinner party or other gathering.

Mead

Essentially a honey based wine, mead is created by diluting honey in warm water and allowing it to ferment until the sugars have created alcohol. This is by far the best use for large quantities of honey and will require a fermenting barrel with white wine yeast, citric acid, yeast nutrient, and an air lock – all of these items can usually be found at a local home brew supply store or a number of online resources.

Baklava

Baklava is a traditional Turkish sweet that features layers of buttery filo-dough filled with toasted nuts nestled inside each layer. Often, this dessert is doused with a honey sauce, usually one that is reduced with rose water or orange blossom, and is very, very sweet. Surprisingly, this recipe is very easy to make and the nuts that are found within the filo-dough layers can be almost any type of nut.

Ham Glaze

Honey ham is something that everyone has heard of and it is possible to create your own honey ham glaze at home. Simply mix four parts honey with one part apple cider vinegar, wholegrain mustard and apple brandy and coat the entire ham before baking. Using honey as a glaze does not burn as easily as apricot jam or other substances would and works perfectly with the saltiness of the meat.

If you enjoy the great taste of honey but don’t want to pay the higher price of Manuka honey, Blue Borage honey is the perfect alternative. It costs less but still features many of the same taste benefits of Manuka honey. In fact, many chefs actually prefer to cook with Blue Borage honey. For more information or to get your order started, click here.