What is creamed honey? Creamed honey is honey that has crystallized with very small crystals. Usually when honey crystallizes you'll see large granules, which yields a crunchy texture. Creamed honey is very smooth, almost the consistency of room temperature butter. The crystals are so small that you can barely feel them on your tongue. Creamed honey is also opaque, unlike liquid honey. Here you can see the difference (the creamed honey is much more pale):
There are more complicated ways to make creamed honey (such as the Dyce Method) which involves heating the honey to destroy any yeasts and already existing crystals. The more complicated methods are said to yield more consistent, higher quality results.
That being said, I like my simple method that allows me to use raw honey. Not heating the honey is not only easier, but it preserves the natural enzymes.
I typically make 10lb batches of creamed honey at a time, because that is what fits well in my mixer :-) You'll need:
- 10% Creamed Honey (1lb) - this should be of a quality that you want in your liquid honey. I started with Trader Joe's Creamed honey, now I can use my own creamed honey!
- 90% Liquid Honey (9lbs) - It works best if this honey is freshly harvested, and not cloudy. If your honey is cloudy, it may have already started crystallizing and those crystals will compete with the small creamed crystals that you want.
- A kitchen mixer or I've seen people use mixer attachments for their drills (a clean one!)
- Wide-mouth jars or tubs. This will be the final serving container for your honey, as it will solidify in the container as it crystallizes.
First pour all of your liquid honey into your mixer (or a 5-gallon bucket if you are going to mix by hand or with a drill attachment). I've got my creamed honey next to the mixer bowl filled with liquid honey. You can see that the creamed honey is solid enough to hold its shape if you take a spoonful out, you can also see how light in color the creamed honey is compared to the liquid honey. When the liquid honey crystallizes, it will lighten to that color too.
Add your creamed honey to your mixing bowl/bucket. You want to stay between 5% and 10% creamed honey. Less than 5% and you run the risk of larger crystals forming. It's not a big deal if you use over 10%, it's just unnecessary since 10% should be plenty of seed crystal.
Mix the liquid and creamed honey thoroughly. You don't want to whip air into the honey, so use the lowest speed. Make sure that the honey is completely mixed together so that the seed crystals are evenly distributed.
Now that the honey is completely blended, pour it into your containers. I use a 5 gallon bucket that has a spout so I can easily fill my jars. You can also just pour the honey out of the bowl, but you might want a helper to scrape/aim so your kitchen doesn't end up a sticky mess (which may be inevitable anyway). I also usually pour off about a pound into my original container to save 1lb of creamed honey for the seed for next time. Each time I make a new batch of creamed honey, it is more and more of my own honey and less of the Trader Joe's honey. The first generation is 10% Trader Joe's, the second generation is 1% Trader Joe's and so on.
Here is what the freshly mixed creamed honey looks like next to set creamed honey. It will take about a week at 60 degrees for the newly mixed honey to fully crystallize. It may take longer at other temperatures, the faster the honey crystallizes, the more it will take on the characteristics of the seed crystal. I have a little wine fridge that I use for setting my creamed honey at 60 degrees. Left: Creamed Honey, Middle: Newly mixed Creamed Honey (90% Liquid, 10% Creamed), Right: Liquid Honey
Enjoy!
I've never done this before, and I look forward to giving it a whirl (literally!). Thank you for this blog post.
ReplyDelete