3:10pm Thursday 10th December 2009
Liz Wright finds some honey recipies to add sweetness to your cooking Honey was once the only method of sweetening until sugar cane was introduced and so old recipes do feature it strongly. Indeed during war time, with sugar on ration, bee keepers came into their own and honey was once again used as a sweetener. Gail Anderson-Dargatz in her strikingly evocative novel on Canadian farming, “A recipe for bees” says “During the war honey had replace sugar for canning, sweetening tea and coffee, and making cakes and cookies. Now that the war and rationing was ended, the market for honey had bottomed out. Augusta herself had dumped her honey-canned fruit once sugar was available. Everyone was hungry for sugar then, and sick and tired of honey.”
Now we are looking to use honey in cooking again and even the supermarkets have a range of honey based sauces, salad dressings marinades and glazes. But you can make your own recipes – use honey in place of sugar or as a marinade with herbs, garlic or wine. Place ingredients in a jar and shake well, keep in the fridge and use when needed. Add to smoothies or fruit drinks for sweetness and also goodness (I’m such a firm believer in the medicinal properties of honey – particularly when the media is full of swine flu scaremongering). Or use in baking for natural sweetness. Try this recipe from Mrs Beeton over a 100 years ago.
Honey pudding 113g (4oz) honey 170g (6oz) breadcrumbs 30g (1oz) butter 30g (1oz) semolina 2 free range eggs (separate yolks and whites) Grated rind of half a lemon Ground ginger – half a teaspoon – optional 145 mls (approx 1/3 pint) whole milk Cook semolina in milk for ten minutes then pour over breadcrumbs, add the honey, lemon rind, ginger, warmed butter and the yolks of the eggs and beat well.
Whisk whites stiffly and then stir into the rest of the ingredients.
Put mixture into a well buttered pudding basin and steam gently for up to two hours.
Serve with a suitable sauce such as runny honey or honey and crème fraiche.
A honey and marmalade glaze for bacon joint Blend together 60ml (four level tbsps) of marmalade (fine shred), 75ml (5 tbsps) clear honey and if desired, a few drops of Tabasco sauce or some fresh grated peppercorns. Cook the bacon joint by boiling for half the recommended cooking time and then baking in centre of oven for the remainder. Apply about one third glaze about 30 minutes before und of cooking time and then again at ten minute intervals twice more. Cool and enjoy. You can see that there are many variations on this sort of glaze.
Watch out for fan ovens as they can cause the honey to burn if set at a high temperature.
And finally home made sweets Honey balls Chop equal quantities of candied peel or mixed fruit, dates and glace cherries (you can choose what you like best), add enough warmed honey to make them bind together. Divide into small equal-sized portions and roll in chopped nuts or good quality chocolate powder and icing sugar and allow to harden. Keep in fridge.
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