Sweet Kitchen Tricks

Using natures sweetener has endless possibilities! From cooking to baking, maybe using it as a sweetener, or utilizing it in your meal as a flavorful glaze, your imagination awaits. Use these 8 sweet kitchen tricks to use honey like a pro.

1. Get that last drop: Over the course of a worker bee's life, she will collect enough nectar to make 1/12 teaspoon honey. So make sure you get all of the honey out of your measuring cup so you can enjoy her hard work! Before measuring out your honey, spray the utensil down with cooking spray to help the honey glide out of the utensil.                                                                                                        
2. Crystallized to liquified: Honey will naturally crystallize but you can liquify it by placing the jar in a warm water bath and stiring until the crystals dissolve. You may also microwave a microwave-safe container with the lid off, stirring every 30 seconds until the crystals dissolve. To slow the process of crystallization, store honey at room temperature.                                                                          
3. Substitute: Honey can be substituted for granulated sugar by beginning to substitute honey for up to half of the sugar that is needed in that recipe. With some experimentation, some recipes can have all of the sugar subsituted with honey.                                                              
4. Turn the temperature down: Honey can increase the speed of browning in the oven. For baked goods, reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees to prevent over-browning from occuring.                                                                                                                                          
5. Reduce the liquid: Honey naturally has more moisture than granulated sugar so to acheive the same consistency that you would with granulated sugar, you need to reduce the liquid used. For every cup of honey that is used in the recipe, reduce any liquid by 1/4 cup.                      
6. Neutralize: Honey has an acidic nature making it great for marinades as the acid can tenderize meat. To neutralize the acid when baking, add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda for each cup of honey that is used. The acidic nature of honey is what makes honey self-preserving.                                                                                                                      
7. Choosing honey: There are over 300 varieties of honey available in the United States, each with a different flavor because of the floral source. So how do you choose which type of honey to use for each recipe? A lighter colored honey typically has a milder taste while a darker honey will have a more bold flavor. A dark honey is great to use in sauces and a lighter colored honey tastes splendid in tea or lemonade. Experiment with the many different varieties of honey to see which honey works best in your favorite recipes.                                                                                       
8. Honey conversions: If a recipe calls for 1 cup of honey, all you will need is a 12 ounce jar of honey. The conversion is 1 cup = 12 ounce jar of honey. 

Experiment with the over 300 varieties of
honey available in the United States!

Moo Goo Gai Pan Recipe

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cooking Chinese

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 whole large chicken breast, skinned, halved lengthwise and boned

1 ½ cup water

⅓ cup soy sauce

¼ cup dry sherry

2 ⅕ Tbsp cornstarch

2 Tbsp Honey

2 tsp instant chicken bouillon granules

1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, drained

1 cup fresh pea pods or 3 ounces of frozen pea pods, thawed

½ cup fresh mushrooms

4 to 6 green onions

2-3 Tbsp fresh ginger root

2 Tbsp cooking oil

Directions

1) Partially freeze chicken; thinly slice into bite-size strips.

2) In a small mixing bowl, stir together the water, soy sauce, dry sherry, cornstarch, honey,

and instant chicken bouillon granules; mix well.

3) Slice the drained water chestnuts; set aside. Halve the pea pods crosswise; set aside.

Slice the mushrooms and green onions; set aside. Grate the ginger root; set aside.

4) Preheat wok or large skillet over high heat; add oil. Add the chicken to wok or skillet;

stir-fry 3 to 4 minutes. Remove chicken. (Add more oil, if necessary) Stir-fry water

chestnuts, pea pods, mushrooms, green onions, and ginger root 3 to 4 minutes.

5) Return chicken to wok or skillet. Stir the bouillon mixture and stir into chicken. Cook and

stir till thickened and bubbly. Cover and cook 2 minutes more or till heated through.

 

 

Honey Cinnamon Butter Recipe

 Ingredients:

• 1 Stick butter (1/2 C.)
• 1/2 C. Honey
• 1 tsp. Cinnamon

Directions:

    Mix all ingredients together and serve with pancakes, bagels, rolls, or toast.

Honey Cranberry Dip Recipe

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. Cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 C. Honey 
• 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/2 C. Dried cranberries
• 1/4 C. Pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Beat the cream cheese with a mixer until it is fluffy. 
2. Add the honey and cinnamon and beat until combined.
3. Fold in cranberries and choice of nuts. 
4. Chill until firm. 
5. Serve with graham crackers and fresh fruit.

2021 Representatives Crowned Virtually

The new American Honey Queen and Princess were selected at the 2021 American Beekeeping Federation Convention held virtually this year.

2021 American Honey Queen

Jennifer Hinkel from Wisconsin

2021 American Honey Princess

Virginia Allen from Texas

Congratulations ladies! They will spend the year promoting honey and beekeeping throughout the United States and post interesting articles along the way. Keep an eye out for the sweetest representatives in America!

What is a Swarm?

Have you ever seen a cartoon or show where a large cloud of bees chase someone, flying over their head and stinging them everywhere? That's a swarm, right? Thankfully, a real swarm is much more gentle and an interesting phenomenon!

In a normal hive taken care of by a beekeeper, a honeybee hive is made out of wood, and can be stacked to add more room for bees. One hive of bees has between 60,000 to 80,000 bees, with the majority of that number being workers. Sometimes, the honeybees may feel overcrowded in their home. After all, it is a large population for such a small home. If the hive isn't getting enough honey supers added for the bees to store their honey in, they prepare to fly away and make a new home somewhere else in the wild. Half of the bees will search for a perfect spot to create their new home, while others will stay at their current home and continue to live there.

In preparation for the swarm, the queen of the hive has to stop laying eggs about two weeks before they leave. She is too heavy to fly herself outside of the hive, so when she discontinues laying eggs, her body will shrink a little smaller, so she can carry her own weight and fly with the swarm. Before she stops laying eggs, she has to prepare new queen cups for the old half of the hive. She will then lay eggs in the queen cells, and the workers will feed them their royal jelly. Once the old queen and the half of the hive leaves or "swarms," the new queens will be born, and they will have to fight to the death for a new queen to take over.

When the swarm of bees look for a new area for their home, they like to find places high and away from living things, or in small and dark spaces, where they feel safe. During a swarm, honeybees are very docile. This is because they do not have anything to protect yet. They need to have the queen lay more eggs, and they need to start building their new home so they can store honey and pollen again. Sometimes bees will swarm in places that humans aren't very fond of, so they will call a beekeepers to safely remove the swarm, and rehome them back into a wooden hive. 

If you ever happen to see a swarm, it's best to stay a safe distance away, call an experienced beekeeper, and let them do the rest!

What do Bees Eat?

Did you know that honeybees eat more than just honey? They eat a couple different types of food to stay healthy and have energy to work!

Of course honeybees eat honey! They make it from nectar, the sugary substance flowers make to invite the bees to visit. The honeybees gather this nectar to make into honey. You can learn about how honeybees make honey in our past post called “How Do Honeybees Make Honey?” The honey they eat is the source of carbohydrates and gives them energy. Did you know that honey is a good energy source for humans too!

The pollen baskets are packed full!

Honeybees also eat pollen (a powdery substance flowers make) for their protein. They mix the pollen with nectar and pack it onto their back legs into their pollen baskets. They then carry the pollen home to feed to the brood (baby bees). This pollen keeps the honeybees healthy so they can fight off infection in the hive and help the baby bees grow big and strong.

The milky substance inside the cells is royal jelly.

Royal jelly is a milky, protein rich substance that the honeybees feed special eggs to make them become a queen bee. If the egg wasn’t fed royal jelly then it would become a worker bee, but when an egg is fed the special food it supercharges their development so that they are able to lay eggs and become a queen bee. Royal jelly is made from glands in the bees’ head. Some people like to eat royal jelly because it has so many healthy proteins in it. While it doesn’t turn you into a queen bee it can be a great way to keep yourself healthy.

Lastly, honeybees drink water. All living animals need water and honeybees are no different. They look for slow moving sources of water because honeybees can drown. Pollinating and collecting nectar is a hard job and the worker bees need somewhere safe to land to take a drink of water. We wrote back in February about how you can build your own bee water bath!