September is As Sweet As Honey

Honey has been around over 150 million years. Used both as a sweetener and for healing and medicinal treatments honey has even been used as a source to pay others in ancient Egypt. Ancient Romans refer to honey as a food for the Gods and the Old Testament bible refers to the "Land of Milk and Honey" It seems that nearly every part of the world has a great reverence for honey. 

In the beginning the manner of gathering honey was difficult. It had to be stolen from the trees where the bees hid it. Eventually bee hives were created and used greatly. Today most honey comes from bee farms that have many hives.  After gathering the honey comes the job of cooking and storing the sweet source

Honey is not only sweet but also helps dry up moisture making it perfect for cakes, cookies and candies. Using honey rather than sugar is a common practice. There is a draw back of this though , using honey in some candies and frostings will leave the creations too moist, soft and gooey. A few tricks to remember when cooking with honey include:

• reducing the use of sugar and replacing it with honey for 1/2 the amount called for requires the baker to reduce the liquid by 1/4th. If all sugar is replaced with honey then the liquid called for in the recipe should be cut in 1/2. 
•  when making honey cakes and quick breads the honey should be combined with the liquid and baked at lowest temp. 
• Honey can also be used to replace molasses. Honey replaces molasses in equal amounts. When replacing molasses in a recipe baking soda will not be needed. However, baking powder should be increased by 1 tsp for every 1/4 tsp of baking soda omitted.

Check out this delicious recipe for milk and honey bread. 

shared at Thursday favorite things

retweet here

shared on these facebook group pages
retweet the words 
retweet the words December 16