Using Honey
One pound of honey is about 1-1/3 cups.
A 3-pound container holds about 4 cups honey.
Honey can be used in many ways. It makes a
good spread for breads, muffins and biscuits and a tasty sandwich
filling when mixed with dried fruits, peanut butter or cottage
cheese. Honey can be used as a sweetener for fruits and beverages.
It also can be used in any food that is sweetened, including frozen
desserts, baked products, meat glazes, custards, frostings, pie
fillings, cobblers, puddings, candied vegetables and salad dressings.
Some recipes use honey as the main sweetener;
others use sugar. Honey can be used to replace some of the sugar
called for in many recipes. Use these guidelines for cakes and
cookies.
Cakes: One-half of the sugar in a cake
recipe can be replaced with honey. For every 1 cup of sugar replaced,
leave out 1/4 cup of liquid.
Cookies: The amount of sugar that can
be replaced with honey varies with the kind of cookie being made.
For brownies, half of the sugar can be replaced. For fruit bars,
honey can replace two-thirds of the sugar called for in the recipe.
Only one-third of the sugar can be replaced in gingersnaps.
When making either cakes or cookies, first
mix the honey with the fat or the liquid. Then mix it thoroughly
with the other ingredients. If this is not done, a soggy layer
will form on the top of the baked product.
Products made with honey brown faster than
foods made with other sweeteners. So when you bake products made
with honey, set the oven temperature 25 degrees F lower than what
is indicated in the recipe.
Storing Honey
Honey keeps best in a dry place at a cool
temperature between 50 and 70 degrees F. Keep it in a tightly
covered container so it does not absorb moisture or odors from
the air.
Honey will start to form crystals as it gets
older or if it is refrigerated. To make it liquid again, place
the honey in an open container in a pan of warm water until it
is clear. Do not have the honey in a plastic container when you
set it in the warm water.
Health and Honey
Honey provides energy to the body. The amounts
of nutrients in honey, however, are small when the number of calories
in honey are considered.
Honey cannot be used as a substitute for cane
or beet sugar in a sugar-restricted diet. Honey is composed of
the same basic parts as regular sugar, and the body uses it in
the same way.
Honey and products made with honey must not
be fed to infants younger than one year, because honey can cause
"infant botulism." Spores of the bacteria that cause
botulism are present in honey. When these spores get into the
intestinal tract of an infant, they grow and produce a toxin that
results in serious illness and death. Remember that these spores
in honey are not destroyed by regular cooking or baking methods.
