Review of Honey Cookbooks, Part III

I acquired two more honey-based cookbooks recently and am happy to say that I can recommend one of them--in fact, it's among the best of the bunch.  That's not surprising, since it's a fairly recently published book--2009--with recipes from The National Honey Board.  The Honey Board is my first go-to source when I'm looking for honey recipes, so it's nice to have a volume on my book shelf, too.  Read on for my reviews of both books!

RECOMMENDED:
Honey for Health & Beauty: Over 75 Recipes, Remedies and Natural Treatments.  Introduction by Lauren Feder, MD, Foreward by Marie-Annick Courtier, and recipes from The National Honey Board.  It was published in 2009 by Hatherleigh Press as part of their "cooking well" series.  This book has the most up-to-date information (in book form, at least) on health-related studies involving honey, including a discussion of honey as a prebiotic, which promotes healthy bacteria in our digestive tracts.  There's also a chapter on honey-based beauty treatments, including a foaming vanilla honey bath that I'll try once the weather gets colder. It includes nice array of interesting recipes, too, such as honey hummus, couscous salad and upside down peach berry pie (a recipe I'll try when McConnells' Farm peaches come in--which should be any day now!).

NOT RECOMMENDED
Lonik, Larry.  The Healthy Taste of Honey:  Recipes, Anecdotes & Lore. 2nd edition. (Chelsea, MI:  RKT Publishing) 2001 (originally published in 1981).   I borrowed this from the BF Jones Memorial Library in Aliquippa, which has a fantastic bee and beekeeping collection if you're ever in town.  (Our library is one of Aliquippa's best kept secrets!)  Where was I?  Oh! Right! Reviewing Larry Lonik's honey cookbook:
This is a quirky little book, filled with odd ball pop culture references sprinkled in among the recipes, like  "The Beach Boys have a recording called 'Wild Honey'" (p. 44).  "The television series Saturday Night Live has a semi-regular skit that follows a gang of human-size bees on various escapades"  (p. 59).  It also has a wild selection of black and white photos, including lots of guys with bee beards, "1978 Honey Bees" cheer leading squad and a rather risque photo of the outer sleeve of the Ohio Players' "Honey" phonogram.  Lonik, it would seem, is a bit of a renaissance man, having worked in the film, TV and music industries (which might explain the pop culture references) and is billed as an expert  in morel mushrooms.

The recipes range from beverages to pickles to meats and vegetables and candies.  The beverage recipes include a number of alcoholic mixed drinks and an interesting "carrot-top tea" (4 cups hot water, 6 medium size carrot tops, 1 small piece of orange peel.  Pour water over carrot tops and orange peel and steep.  Sweeten with honey  Haven't tried it--but if I do, I'll let you know what I think!)   I don't get the impression that these recipes have been tested, though.  Most of the baked goods call for 100% whole wheat flour and seem to reflect a kind of 1980s health food approach--one I can appreciate, but doesn't quite hold up to the test of time.

I think this book is out of print, but you can find it on-line for less than $5, so if you'd like to add a quirky honey cookbook to your collection, this would be it! :)

Honey Blueberry Muffins

It's blueberry season here in Western PA and it's hard to think of a better combination than blueberries and honey. Blueberries and honey on your oatmeal. Blueberries and honey in your smoothie. Blueberries and honey for dessert.

Here's a basic blueberry muffin recipe that uses honey for the sweetener. I adapted it from Joanne Barrett's Cooking with Honey (reviewed in Review of Honey Cookbooks, Part I).

HONEY BLUEBERRY MUFFINS
4 tablespoons honey (I used summer)
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk (I used nonfat)
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 3/4 cup blueberries
Turbinado or sanding sugar for sprinkling on top (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin (or use paper liners). Stir the honey into the butter and blend well. Add the milk and eggs and mix until well combined. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to the honey butter mixture and mix just until combined and no flour pockets remain (try not to over mix). Fold in the blueberries. Fill prepared muffin tins 2/3rds full and sprinkle with sugar if using. Bake for about 20 minutes. Serve warm!

"Award-winning" Honey Peanut Butter Crispies!

"Best Crispy-Rice-Cereal & Honey Dessert" award!

The Beaver Valley Area Beekeepers' Association and Burgh Bees held a joint beekeepers' picnic on Saturday at the beautiful home and roomy barn of Gary & Heather S.  Best beekeepers' picnic we've been to in ages!   New this year was a "Taste of Honey" contest featuring dishes made with local honey.  They included a sumptuous baklava, delicious blueberry scones, Jim H's famous stewed rhubarb--and many more.  Kerry K. won rave reviews and coveted fan favorite award for her fantastic peanut butter honey dip for fruit.
My own entry--Honey Peanut Butter Crispies--won for the "Best Crispy Rice Cereal & Honey Dessert." (And now is the time to note that Robert was one of the judges and that, um, mine was the ONLY entry in this category.  Thanks for making sure I won an award, Honey!)   BVABA and Burgh Bees plan to post the recipes for the other award winners and I'll post them when they do.  Many thanks to Beth and Kerry for co-coordinating a great event.

HONEY PEANUT BUTTER CRISPIES
1 cup honey (summer honey is great for this)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky--your pick)
7 cups crispy rice cereal
kosher salt (about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon)
4 oz good dark chocolate, melted (optional)
Lightly grease a 13x9x2 inch pan.  In a large, heavy pan, bring the brown sugar and honey to a boil, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in the peanut butter, blending thoroughly.  Add the rice cereal in two batches and gently fold to coat evenly.  Firmly press into prepared pan using the back of a spoon or your hands.  Sprinkle the top with kosher salt to taste.  Cut into 1 x 1 1/2 inch bars.  Makes about 40.  To gild the lily, you can melt some very good dark chocolate and either drizzle over the bars or dip one end of the bar into the chocolate.  Let cool until chocolate firms up.  These can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week.

Honey Ice Cubes for your Fresh Herb Tea!

Honey Ice Cubes!
These are perfect for iced tea because they add a touch of sweetness without watering down the drink too much.  You can add them to just about any unsweetened or lightly sweetened drink, though.  If you like scotch on ice, try it with some honey ice cubes and you just might be in heaven!

Blend 1/2 cup of honey with 2 cups hot (not boiling) water and 2 tablespoons lemon (or orange or lime or even peach) juice.  Stir until thoroughly combined.  Pour into ice cube trays and freeze until solid.  This makes 2 or 3 ice cube trays full, depending on the size of your trays.

Fresh Herb Tea
Just about any fresh herb out in your garden right now can make a refreshing cold tea.  I tend to use mints as a base and then experiment with adding one other herb for some subtle flavors.  Basil is a mint, so pepper or spearmint with a few sprigs of basil added lends a nice flavor to cold herb tea.  Try other herbs, though, such as lemon balm, lemon verbena, tarragon--even thyme or a sprig of rosemary.

1 cup fresh herbs, swished in a bowl of cold water to get rid of any dirt
2 quarts cold, filtered tap water
1/4 to 1/2 cup honey
Bring the cold tap water to just under a boil.  Bruise the herbs leaves by twisting them or mashing them to bring out their oils and place in a 3-quart heat tolerant container.  Pour the hot water over the herbs and steep for about 30 minutes (or until the tea reaches a strength you desire).  Strain the herbs out and add the honey, stirring to mix well.  Taste and check for sweetness, remembering that as the tea chills, the sweetness will diminish.  Chill well and serve over honey ice cubes!
Variations:  Before chilling, add juice of 1 lemon and then refrigerate.  Serve with lemon slices.  OR Add 1-2 cups of orange juice and serve with orange slices.  (When I use the orange variation, I usually just use spearmint or peppermint and skip the lemon balm and lemon verbena.)

What Exactly is Honey?

Such a simple question.  The answer...well, that's a bit more complex!

Honey is a blend of simple sugars, primarily fructose (about 40%)  glucose (about 35%) with a little sucrose (about 2%).  The other primary ingredient in honey is water, which should be between 16 and 18%.  The remaining ingredients are "trace"--that is, they aren't present in enough quantity to make honey a significant source for them.  These include minerals (such as potassium).  Honey is also somewhat acidic (a result of the enzymes honeybees add to the nectar when they begin to ripen it into honey).

Honey compared to sugar:  Honey has more calories than sugar (there's about 16 calories in a teaspoon of table sugar while honey has about 22 calories per teaspoon).  But honey tends to be sweeter, so you may not need to use as much of it.  In sugar, the fructose and glucose are linked together, while in honey they remain separate.  This accounts for honey's sweeter taste:  fructose is sweeter and because it's not linked to glucose in honey, its sweetness shines through.

From the bees' perspective, honey is a carbohydrate that gives them energy. And because honeybees are indeed busy,  they need all of the energy that they can get!  (Honeybees also collect pollen, which supplies their protein. Together, honey and pollen provide honeybees with a complete diet.)

Spring Honey Extraction!

Frames of capped honey waiting to be extracted

Spring honey is one of Western Pennsylvania's most amazing delicacies. Nectar from early and late spring tree blossoms, especially the black locust and tulip poplar trees combine to create a delightfully light and delicious spring honey.  With all the rain in early spring, we were worried we wouldn't have much of a spring crop.  Rain can dilute the nectar so much that the bees have trouble turning it into honey.

     Once foragers collect the nectar, they store it in their "honey stomachs" and take it back to the colony.  At the colony, waiting house bees take the nectar from foragers in a mouth-to-mouth transfer.  The house bee will work with honey for about 30 minutes, moving it in and out of her proboscis, a process that adds enzymes and helps with evaporation.  Nectar is usually about 80% water, while honey is about 17% water-very dry!  Once she works with the nectar, she'll place it in a cell to evaporate more.  She and her sisters will fan the nectar until most of the water in it has been evaporated.  At that point, they'll cap the cell with a bit of beeswax to prevent moisture from getting back in.

A close up of nectar and just-capped honey (as well as some pollen)

Here's a close up photo of nectar on the verge of being capped.  In the top left, you can see some that the bees are starting to cap some of the cells.  The shiny cells have nectar not yet ready to cap.  In the lower right, the cells are filled with solid, colorful pollen. Nectar and honey are the bees' source of carbohydrates.  Pollen provides their protein.

Uncapping the honey to get it ready to extract

To extract the honey, we remove the beeswax cappings using a hot knife. The frames are then put into the extractor.









Here's a photo of "Big Green," our four-frame "antique" honey extractor, which we use when we don't have a lot of honey to extract.  The extractor spins the honey out of the cells using centrifugal force.

"Big Green" our 4-frame extractor  

And voila! Honey flows from the extractor into a strainer and a gated bucket.

Fresh spring honey!

A Honey of a Father's Day Meal

It's all honey all the time for this Father's Day meal! Maybe your dad is already sweet and so one (or two) of these dishes might do the trick. The honey in the steak and the potatoes is not that overpowering, though--so the entire meal is one that even an already sweet dad would enjoy. These dishes all serve about four people.

SEARED BLACK PEPPER HONEY STEAK

We adapted this recipe from Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift's How to Eat Supper cookbook. You can check out the original recipe on Rosetto Kasper's Splendid Table website.

3 tablespoons dry red wine

3 tablespoons honey--the fall honey is fantastic with this, but summer honey also works well

3 large garlic cloves, smashed

freshly ground black pepper (about 1 teaspoon)

olive oil

1-1/2 to 2 pounds steak (about 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 inches thick--get it from McElhaney's!)

kosher salt

more freshly ground pepper

Combine the wine, honey and garlic cloves and pepper and pour over steak. Let it marinate while you make the rest of the meal. Coat the bottom of a frying pan with olive oil and heat over medium high heat. Pat the steak dry with a paper towel and add to the pan. Let it sear on one side for about 3 minutes, while you sprinkle the top with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Turn and cook 3 minutes more, sprinkling with more salt and pepper. Turn heat to medium low and cook, turning for about 2 or 3 more minutes until internal temperature is between 125 and 130 for medium rare. (This splatters a lot, so be prepared for the mess.) Let steak rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. You can thinly slice and use this for sandwiches if you'd like. Two pounds serves four people.

HONEY ROASTED NEW POTATOES

1 pound small new potatoes

2 tablespoons melted butter (or olive oil or peanut oil--or 1/2 butter and 1/2 oil)

3 tablespoons honey (spring or summer)

1 tablespoon dry mustard (or 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper flakes)

kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Scrub new potatoes and place in a pot of salted water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook for no more than 5 minutes. Drain, return to pot and shake over the flame to dry potatoes and get them ready to roast.

Combine the butter (or oil), honey and mustard (or cayenne pepper). Pour over potatoes in the pot and toss to coat well.

Line a rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil (this will save clean up time!). Pour coated potatoes onto cookie sheet, and spread out, giving them lots of room. Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper, being sure each potato gets a nice dose of salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 35 to 50 minutes, shaking pan after about 15 minutes and then at least once again. Begin testing to see if they're done at 35 minutes and keep roasting until a paring knife easily slides in (and out).

Dr. J's FAMOUS SPINACH, APPLE, CHEDDAR SALAD WITH HONEY POPPY SEED SALAD DRESSING

1 pound fresh spinach, washed and dried

1 crisp green apple (like a Granny Smith), chopped

1/4 cup walnuts, toasted

1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

Toss together. When ready to serve, toss with Honey Poppy Seed Salad Dressing (recipe follows)

HONEY POPPY SEED SALAD DRESSING

2/3 cup honey (summer honey works best here)

2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon poppy seeds

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated onion

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine everything but the olive oil in a food processor. While the processor is running, slowly pour in the olive oil until all is emulsified. Just before serving, pour about 1/4 on the salad and toss. Add more dressing as needed. Serve extra dressing on the side.

HONEY STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE BISCUITS

for the strawberries:

2 cups strawberries, cleaned and hulled (and sliced or halved, if large)

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/8 cup honey (summer honey is best)

Combine and set aside while you make the shortcakes.

for the biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter

1/4 cup spring (or summer) honey

2-3 tablespoons whole milk, plus more for tops of biscuits.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together. Cut butter into flour mixture until it's about the size of peas. Combine 2 tablespoons of milk with the honey. Pour over flour and gingerly combine (I use my hands for this). Add another tablespoon of milk if you need to--you want the dough to just barely come together. On a floured surface, pat dough out into a rough square (about 6 by 9 inches). Cut into six squares. If you'd like, you can cut the squares into triangles. Place on an ungreased baking sheet, being sure sides don't touch. Brush tops with some additional milk. Bake for about 10 minutes until tops brown.

To serve, split warm biscuits, top with strawberries. Serve with sweetened whipped cream (beat 1/4 cup of whipping cream with 1/8th cup of honey) or vanilla ice cream (or some plain yogurt sweetened with a little--you knew this was coming, right?  honey!).