WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF BEES
RECIPES
Notes on Baking with Honey
Don’t do it!
If you have some wonderful honey, the best thing you can do is to eat it in its unadulterated state, perhaps with yoghurt or good bread. But, in case you have some less exciting honey and feel like some baking, here are some suggestions.
Generally, items containing honey should be cooked at a lower temperature than other baked goods, because the honey will burn more easily than sugar. The right temperature can be hard to judge at first, because a little bit of a dark burnt taste is what gives many honey cakes their charm, especially those which also contain spices.
If you wish to substitute honey for sugar in any of your own baking recipes, you should, as a rule of thumb, use 25 per cent more honey than sugar by weight (e.g. 125 g instead of 100 g) and reduce the added liquid slightly. Tempting as it is to discard sugar wholesale in flavor of honey, in most sweet recipes, it is best – for texture as well as flavor – to retain some sugar. But just a little honey added to any of your favorite cake recipes can be very successful, making the crumb more tender and the cake keep better.
Do not use your very finest honeys for cooking. They would be wasted. Use mild, all-purpose honeys such as acacia.
RECIPES
Food Recipes from “The Hive” by Bee Wilson.
Published by John Murray
Conserved nuts (Contiture de noix)
A very delicious medieval sweetmeat. From Le Menagier de Paris, adapted from D. Eleanor Scully and Terence Scully’s Early French.
200 ml liquid honey
15 whole cloves
2 tbsp slivers of fresh ginger
200 g whole or halved walnuts
On a low heat in a small saucepan, warm together the honey and spices. Leave the ginger and cloves to steep in the honey for 5-10 minutes. Add the walnuts and bring to the boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until the honey seems thick and toffeeish (the soft-ball stage). Spoon out the walnuts and set them to cool on sheets of baking parchment. Warn people not to eat the cloves; but the candied pieces of ginger are almost the best bit. Like any kind of praline, this is good pulverized over ice cream.
Condoignac – Quince Jam
This is based on a medieval recipe (in Le Menagier de Paris) in which the red wine accentuates the quince’s natural pinkness and the honey brings out the quince’s fragrance. It gives off a Christmassy scent as it is cooking, rather like mulled wine, and indeed would make a delicious Christmas sweetmeat, perhaps boxed in pretty containers.
1 kg ripe quinces
500 ml red wine
450 ml honey
2 tbsp caster sugar
a pinch each of ground cloves, cinnamon and
dried galingale
3-4 tbsp granulated sugar
Peel and core the quinces, cut into quarters and cook them, covered in red wine, until soft. Drain, reserving the syrupy wine, puree the wine-dark quinces, and then press through a sieve. At this point the quince mixture will be a lovely Bloomsbury mauve. Add the honey and the caster sugar to the reserved wine, then bring to a boil. Add the pureed quinces and the spices. Boil until die mixture seems to have reduced by half and is leaving the sides of the pan. It should be thick and jammy. Pour into a greased 20 cm cake tin and leave to cool. Cut into bite-sized pieces and dip them in the granulated sugar. If you prefer, you can boil the mixture a little less long, pot it in jars, and use it as a divine quince spread.
Honey Ice Cream
Honey ice cream is a favorite of the people who run the Maison du Miel in Paris. Honey lends a wonderful texture to ice cream, as well as providing luxurious connotations of the land of milk and honey. I like to use lavender honey.
| 1 vanilla pod |
| 500 ml double cream |
| 250 ml whole milk |
| 150 ml set honey, preferably lavender |
Split open the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds along with the pod into a large saucepan. Pour in the cream and milk and bring them just to a boil. Remove from the heat. Stir in the honey until it dissolves thoroughly. Cover the saucepan with a lid, and leave the mixture to steep until it is cool. When it has cooled, strain it to remove the vanilla pod, transfer the now-fragrant liquid to a jug, cover it with clingfilm, and chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Then churn it in an ice-cream maker, or freeze it in a shallow container in the freezer, whisking every so often to break down the ice crystals.
Spanish Turron
A Christmas delicacy related to nougat. The great honey historian Eva Crane notes that this is traditionally made with rosemary honey or orange honey.
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100 g honey |
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1 00 g caster sugar |
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2 large egg whites, beaten until stiff |
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150 g blanched almonds, lightly toasted |
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100 g hazelnuts, roasted |
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rice paper |
Put the honey and sugar in a saucepan and place over medium heat until boiling. Remove from the heat and beat the mixture until it seems to thin out. Stir in the egg whites, beating constantly, and return to a medium heat until a toffeeish consistency is reached. Stir in the nuts. Pour the mixture into a baking tray lined with rice paper. Cover it with more rice paper. Place under a weight for an hour or so, then cut into squares or diamonds, as you like.
Sour-Sweet Russian Bread
This dark, heavy bread is adapted from Lesley Chamberlain’s excellent book The Food and Cooking of Russia (London: Alien Lane, 1982).
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300 g white bread flour |
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300 g strong wholewheat flour |
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300 g rye flour |
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1 sachet Easyblend yeast |
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500 ml water, just off the boil |
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2 tbsp honey |
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1 tbsp pomegranate molasses (optional) |
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1 tsp caraway seeds (optional) |
Mix together the flours and the yeast. Pour over the water mixed with the honey and pomegranate molasses, mix, and knead well. Transfer to an oiled bowl and leave to rise in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in size. Knead again, adding the caraway seeds, form into two loaves, and leave to rise again. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220 °C (gas mark 7). When the dough has risen again, wet the loaves with wet hands and put them in the oven to bake, turning down the oven temperature to 180 °C (gas mark 4) after 15 minutes. They will take about 40 minutes in total, depending on your oven.
Kodafa Drenched in Honey
This Middle Eastern cheesecake seems not unlike the ancient Greek cheesecakes steeped in honey mentioned by poets. It is rather intense, but good if you are in the right mood. Usually it is made with kadif, the shredded-wheat-like pastry, but this version, adapted from Marlena Spieler’s informative The Jewish Heritage Cookbook (London: Lorenz Books 2002), uses couscous, which is easier to get hold of. I have changed some of the quantities slightly from the original recipe, using less cheese and butter.
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200 g couscous |
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400 ml boiling water |
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100 g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces |
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1 egg, beaten |
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pinch of salt |
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250 g ricotta |
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150 g chopped mozzarella |
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350 ml clear honey |
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a pinch of saffron |
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120 ml water |
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1 tsp lemon juice |
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a handful of chopped pistachio nuts (optional) |
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½ tsp Salt |
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1oo g brown sugar |
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50 g toasted wheat bran |
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75 g raisins (or dried figs or apricots, chopped) |
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120 ml boiling water |
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75 g unsalted butter |
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60 ml honey |
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120 ml milk or buttermilk |
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1 large egg, beaten |
Preheat the oven to 200 °C (gas mark 6). Line twelve muffin cups with muffin papers or grease them well. Stir the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar to combine. Put the bran and raisins in another bowl and mix in the boiling water. Meanwhile, melt the butter and honey together. When this has cooled, stir in the milk and the beaten egg. Then stir in the flour mixture – as always with muffins, do not overmix. Mix in the bran and dried fruit. Divide the batter between the muffin cases and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into one of the muffins comes out clean.
Almond Baklava
Charles Perry, the food critic for the LA Times, and an expert on Arabic food, tells me that most baklava in Turkey is now made exclusively with sugar syrup in place of honey. Another illusion shattered. But baklava is good with honey added, and, even if not authentic, this recipe satisfies Western dreams of an aromatic East.
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200 g granulated sugar |
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170 ml water |
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75 ml liquid honey |
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2 cinnamon sticks |
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the peel of a whole orange, removed with a potato peeler |
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1 tsp rose water |
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100 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled |
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300 g coarsely chopped almonds |
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½tsp ground cinnamon |
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400 g filo pastry, thawed if frozen |
Put 150 g sugar into a saucepan with the water, honey, cinnamon sticks and orange peel and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring it to the boil, then remove from the heat. Mix in the rose water and cool, then chill. This syrup can be prepared several days ahead. When you are ready to make the baklava, preheat the oven to 150 °C (gas mark 2). Brush a large baking tray with melted butter. Mix together the almonds, cinnamon and 50 g sugar. Fold one sheet of filo in half to make a rectangle. Place on the baking tray and brush with butter. Repeat until you have used up half the filo. Sprinkle the nut mixture over the top. Top with the rest of the sheets, folding each one and brushing with butter. Try to make the top layer nice and neat, and use a sharp knife to make diamond shapes on it. Bake until golden – about 40 minutes. Now strain the rose syrup to remove the peel and cinnamon. Spoon 200 ml of syrup over the baklava while it is still hot. Cut the baklava along the diamond lines. Let it stand for 4 hours before eating in very small pieces, with the rest of the syrup on the side, and a cup of strong black coffee.
Pain d’Epice
This, give or take a little sugar and baking powder, is the original article, as adapted from the Larousse gastronomique. It is an acquired taste. You couldn’t accuse it of being light, but it has its charm: the honey, the flour and the spices all seem to bring out the flavors in each other.
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500 g honey |
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500 g flour (white, rye or a mixture) |
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100 g caster sugar 2 tsp cream of tartar |
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1 tsp bicarbonate of soda |
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2 tsp aniseed |
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a pinch each of cinnamon and cloves |
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grated zest of a lemon |
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30 ml milk |
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extra sugar |
Heat the honey to boiling point, then skim it and mix it into the sifted flour. Leave to stand, covered, for at least an hour, and possible a day. Knead in the sugar, baking agents and flavorings. Put in a buttered 23 cm square cake tin. Bake at 190 °C (gas mark 5) for about 30 minutes. Then make a syrup by mixing cold milk with as much sugar as it takes to go syrupy. Brush this over the hot cake, then leave to cool.
Taai – Taai
This is the Dutch variant of pain d’epice. The name means ‘tough- tough’, which it is, but it is also very good, in a dark, spicy way. Dutch bakers have retained the tradition of ripening their dough, sometimes for many months. I have adapted this from Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra’s Windmills in My Oven (Totnes: Prospect Books, 2002), a lovely book, simplifying the technique. Properly, taai-taai should be made over several days, but I make it in a single afternoon, as follows.
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250 g rye flour |
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250 g plain flour |
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250 g honey |
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250 g molasses |
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50 ml water |
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1 tsp each cinnamon and aniseed |
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½ tsp ginger |
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a little grated nutmeg |
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2 ¼ tsp. bicarbonate of soda |
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1 egg, beaten |
Mix together the flours. Combine the honey, molasses and water in a saucepan and warm slightly until very fluid. Cool slightly, then mix with the flours, preferably in a mixer, beating well. Cover and leave for one hour. Then add the spices and bicarbonate of soda. Beat the mixture again. Preheat the oven to 220 °C (gas mark 7). Roll out the sticky brown dough into a rectangle, and cut it into about sixteen or more medium square shapes. Brush each one with beaten egg and bake on trays lined with baking parchment for about seven minutes, before cooling on a wire rack. The taai-taai will keep a long time in an airtight container.
Cardamon and Honey Pryanik
This recipe is also adapted from Lesley Chamberlain’s The Food and Cooking of Russia. Chamberlain notes that pryanik, a spice cake with an important place in Russian cuisine, dates back to ‘at least the ninth century, when it was a simple combination of rye flour, honey and berry juice. Spices were added and the preparation took its modern form in medieval Russia.’ It survived in its traditional form until the end of the nineteenth century, when the Russian palate finally rebelled against pryanik’s killer combination of’ sweetness, stickiness and extreme density’. Russian cooks then adapted it by adding eggs and/or milk, until it became something ‘light and foreign, somewhere between a tea bread and a sponge’. Chamberlain s recipe follows the lighter modern version. I have lightened her recipe still further, with a little brown sugar and an extra egg. But everything is relative, and even this ‘light’ version of pryanik may be rather overwhelming to those used to sponge cake.
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500 g honey |
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100 g brown sugar |
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100 g rye flour |
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400 g white flour |
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½ tsp ground cardamom |
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1 tsp cinnamon |
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½ tsp star anise |
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2 tsp lemon peel |
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½ tsp baking powder |
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½ tsp salt |
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200 ml creme fraiche |
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100 ml milk |
Preheat the oven to 160 °C (gas mark 2½). Warm the honey and sugar in a large saucepan, then add the rye flour and beat well. Combine the white flour and the spices, lemon peel, baking powder and salt. Beat together the eggs, creme fraiche and milk before mixing into the white-flour mixture. Stir in the honey mixture. Pour into a greased 23 cm square baking tin and bake for about 45 minutes, following the usual precautions about burning. Serve cut into squares.
Lekach
This is the honey cake eaten at Rosh Hashanah or Jewish New Year. It is lighter than cakes of the pain d’epice family, with a pleasing bitterness from the dark coffee, picking up the slight bitterness in the cooked honey.
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300 g plain flour |
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1 tsp cinnamon |
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½ tsp cloves |
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zest of an orange |
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1 tsp bicarbonate of soda |
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1 tsp baking powder |
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200 g caster sugar |
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2 large eggs |
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225 g clear honey |
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12O ml light olive oil |
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125 ml strong black coffee |
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a handful of sultanas and walnuts (optional) |
Preheat the oven to 180 °C (gas mark 4). Sift the flour with the spices, orange zest, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Beat the sugar and eggs until creamy. Beat in the honey, oil and coffee. Gradually add the flour mixture to the honey mixture, beating well. If you like, you can add a handful each of sultanas and walnuts at this stage. Pour into two lined 1 kg loaf tins or one 23 cm square tin. Bake for 40-90 minutes, depending on your tin and your oven. It is done when firm to the touch on top.
Honey and Spice Cake
Adapted from Dan Lepard and Richard Whittington’s Baker and Spice: Exceptional Recipes for Real Breads, Cakes and Pastries (London: Quadrille, 2003). This is a very clever recipe, because the rye flour and spice evoke the flavors of the older spice cakes, while the method and presence of butter, eggs and sugar ensure that the texture is airy and soft.
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175 g runny honey |
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140 g unsalted butter |
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50 g dark soft brown sugar |
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2 cm piece root ginger, peeled |
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2 large eggs |
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40 g rye flour |
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100 g self-raising flour |
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½tsp baking powder |
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½ tsp ground cinnamon |
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½ tsp allspice |
Preheat the oven to 160 °C (gas mark 2½) and line a 1 kg loaf tin with baking parchment. (I use those loaf-tin liners you can buy from kitchen-supply shops such as Lakeland.) In a saucepan over low heat, warm together the honey, butter and sugar until hot and the butter is almost melted. Grate the ginger into this mixture. Then whisk it for 2½ minutes, either in a heavy-duty mixer or with an electric whisk. Add the eggs and beat for 2½ minutes more. Then sift together the dry ingredients and fold them into the wet mixture. Pour into the loaf tin and set on a baking tray in the oven, baking until the cake is a deep golden color – about 40-60 minutes.
Madeleines
These are the polar opposite of the old gingerbreads: light, spongy and sugary, with honey present only to add perfume and tenderness. Many recipes add extra flavorings such as rose water or orange zest, but I prefer the delicate taste of butter and honey by themselves. This is a recipe which benefits from light and aromatic honeys, particularly citrus ones such as lime flower or orange blossom.
|
melted butter |
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2 large eggs |
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75 ml honey |
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50 g golden caster sugar |
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150 g plain flour |
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190 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled |
Preheat the oven to 200 °C (gas mark 6). Brush the madeleine sheet (they seem to come with either nine or twelve moulds, and either will do) with melted butter and dust it with flour. Whisk together the eggs, honey and sugar in a bowl set over simmering water until just warm. Remove from the water and beat with a whisk until pale and thick. This may take as long as 10 minutes. Fold in the sifted flour alternately with the unsalted butter. When the batter is all mixed in, spoon it into the madeleine mould, filling until three- quarters full. This will not use up all the batter. Bake until springy – about 10 minutes. Carefully prise out the madeleines and set them on a wire rack, then wipe out the mould, brush it with more melted butter, and bake the rest of the madeleines. These are pretty dusted with icing sugar, but just as good plain.
Spiced Honey and Almond Madeleines
These are adapted from a recipe of Tamasin Day-Lewis’s in Simply the Best (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2001), and they are particularly sticky and delicious. Of all the honey things I have made, these are my favorite. Day-Lewis is a lover of honey, and her father, the poet C. Day-Lewis, translated Virgil’s Georgia, which seems fitting. I have changed the recipe by using black raisins in place of Day-Lewis’s sultanas, and often use whole eggs instead of just egg whites. I have also doubled the quantities, because there are never enough.
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50 g black raisins |
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30 g flour |
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130 g caster sugar |
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30 g ground almonds |
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a pinch each of ginger, cinnamon, cloves and mace |
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1 00 g unsalted butter |
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2 tbsp honey |
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4 large egg whites or 2 whole eggs, beaten |
Preheat the oven to 180 °C (gas mark 4). Soak the raisins in hot water for 20 minutes. Mix all the dry ingredients except the raisins together in a bowl. Melt the butter with the honey. Cool slightly, then add to the dry ingredients. Beat together in an electric mixer. Gradually add the beaten eggs until well mixed. Ideally chill the mixture for 30 minutes at this stage, though I have omitted this without major disaster. Chill a nine- or twelve-mould madeleine sheet. Brush the moulds with melted butter, dust with flour, shaking out any excess, and scatter the drained raisins over the bases. Spoon in half the mixture, and bake for 15-20 minutes, checking after 10 minutes, until golden and just firm to touch. Repeat with the other half of the mixture.