Happy New Year! I hope it's been a really nice couple of weeks for you 😊 I had a very relaxing Christmas day as my mum Janene and sisters Loryn and Ellen did all the cooking - actually, as is always the case in our family, they were testing recipes for a new cookbook! Our recipes really are made with love from my family to yours ❤️️. The relaxing then came to a bit of halt as I spent the next three days attempting to catch a swarm of bees... and what an ordeal it was (click here to see photos)! I love my bees, but more importantly, I deeply believe that we need look after them in order to look after our food system. Eat apples, almonds, berries, apricots, pumpkins and zucchinis? Thank bees! Was this exactly what I wanted to do on the first three days of my break? Honestly, no, but to quote Gretchen Rubin (author of The Happiness Project) "happiness doesn't always make you feel happy". In that moment I wasn't really loving climbing up steep embankments in my hot and sweaty bee suit (with only one usable eye! again click here for photos), but the bigger picture makes me happy, it defines who I am. And you know, it's kind of the same with cooking, right? Am I happy every single time I cook? Frankly no, especially when I'm tired! But I know how important home-cooking is, to my health, to the environment, to my family, to my wallet, to the world. So I do it anyway. And that makes me happy.
To learn more about how you can help bees, grow food, keep chickens and more (all for BEGINNERS!), listen to my beginner gardening podcast, ‘Rooting for You’!
Listen on Spotify.
Listen on Apple Podcast.
Now, onto creamed honey!
Creamed honey - have you tried it? It’s smooth, creamy, rich and luscious. Almost like a honey caramel 🤤 Surprisingly though, it contains no creamy component at all - it’s 100% pure honey! Just VERY well whipped, changing the structure of the sugar crystals. Now, you might want to make a batch because it sounds DELICIOUS, right?! But actually, a more practical reason also…
You know when you have a jar of honey in the pantry or fridge that’s been sitting there for ages and it crystallizes? As in, goes solid and kind of grainy? Not ideal. But actually, there’s nothing wrong with the honey! Honey NEVER goes off, believe it or not. But I get it’s not nice and spreadable in this state.
But the good news is… you need honey in this crystalised state to make creamed honey! So, raid the pantry, find some crystalised honey and get whipping (recipe below). If you don’t have any crystalised honey, you can put liquid honey in the fridge and this will speed up the process.
And voila, you have perfectly creamy, smooth honey!! That will stay in this creamed state for a least a couple of months. Magic, right?
While we’re on the topic of honey… I cannot stress how important it is for us to look after our bees! Not just for our honey supply, but (much more importantly), for our supply of fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts (many of which are honey-bee pollinated). Click here to read how you can help the bees in your own backyard. And always buy RAW honey!
250 - 750g raw crystallised honey
- If it’s a really warm day, you might be good to go, but if not, sit your honey in the sun for an hour or two. We want to soften it as much as possible, but we definitely don’t want to do anything that will heat it above 37C (no microwaves!). You could sit it in a bath of warm water if the sun isn’t available.
- Once softened, spoon into a thermomix, thermo cooker or stand mixer. If using a thermomix or thermo cooker, mix for 3 minutes, speed 6. Watch that the temperature doesn’t exceed 37C - the machine always tells you the current bowl temperature, even if the heating function isn’t engaged. If it gets up to 40C, stop and wait until it’s cooled back down to under 37C. If using a stand mixer, mix on medium speed for 20 minutes. Again, if you feel the honey getting warm, stop and wait for it to cool down before continuing.
- Check how smooth they honey is by rubbing a small amount between your fingers - it should feel smooth and creamy with no signs of grittiness. If not entirely smooth, wait a couple of hours and repeat step 2. However with a thermo I’ve never found this is needed.
- Pour creamed honey into sterilized glass jars and refrigerate for two weeks. After that it is fine stored at room temperature.
Enjoy! Use wherever you would usually use honey. Perfect spread on toast… butter not needed!
Note: Some people say this only works with raw crystallized honey, others say it should work for any crystallized honey (although most agree it’s only high quality, often raw, honey that will crystallize in the first place). I’ve only ever tried it with honey harvested from my own beehives which is harvested without heat (making it RAW honey) and with simple strainer filtration… so I can’t comment!
