As Sweet As Tupelo Honey....

September 5, 2021 6:37 PM

For a potential future culinary experiment - I need recipes where honey is the star ingredient. What have ya got?

I'm toying with getting some genuine tupelo honey, mainly out of curiosity; I'm used to the stuff from the grocery store or from whatever's local to Brooklyn (yes, we have beekeepers here). I don't really use honey except to bake with, though - and thought that maybe baking two batches of something, one with supermarket honey and one with the tupelo, would be an interesting experiment. The problem is that all the recipes I have that use honey also throw in a lot of other flavorings and spices, and I'd like to get a better sense of the taste of the honey itself.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance!

posted by EmpressCallipygos to Food & Drink (16 answers total)

Baklava! (this recipe uses 'sugar', but, every baklava I've ever eaten has been honeyed)
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:10 PM on September 5, 2021 [7 favorites]

Recipe:
1 Make baking powder biscuits.
2 Spread good butter on the warm biscuit.
3 Drizzle with honey.
4 Yum.

I know, it isn't really baking with honey. But it's baking, and it's what I'd do when trying to compare flavors of different honey. (Ok, I really just dunk a Ritz cracker in there, but you wanted to bake something.)

If you really want to bake the honey into something, sweet cornbread or baklava come to mind.
posted by evilmomlady at 7:13 PM on September 5, 2021 [4 favorites]

This looks like the honey cornbread recipe I use.
And this is the baklava recipe.
I will be really interested to learn if you can tell the difference when using different honey.
posted by evilmomlady at 7:19 PM on September 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

Mead! I’ve never tried it, but the recipes look pretty manageable.
posted by carmicha at 7:22 PM on September 5, 2021 [2 favorites]

Agree that the best way to enjoy good honey is not to bake with it, but to drizzle it over buttered biscuits or toast.
posted by neroli at 7:35 PM on September 5, 2021 [4 favorites]

Russian Honey Cake. (I have tried & mostly failed to make it, but a friend succeeded and it was incredible.) NYT Cooking or non-paywall link.
posted by minervous at 7:57 PM on September 5, 2021 [4 favorites]

If you enjoy whiskey the gold rush is a delicious honey forward cocktail.
posted by phil at 8:11 PM on September 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

The honey caramels from Jami Curl’s Candy Is Magic book, or honey nougat. I’d add some dried cherries and apricots for color and some citrus zest.
posted by OneSmartMonkey at 8:27 PM on September 5, 2021

I came to recommend the same Russian Honey Cake minervous suggested. It is truly exceptional.
posted by la glaneuse at 8:32 PM on September 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

I’m kind of a honey nerd and agree with the folks above that the best way to taste the full flavor of honey is not to cook it but use it as a condiment. Think of it like really good olive oil that you don’t cook with but use in dressings and to drizzle on amazing fresh produce, but sweet instead of grassy/spicy/unctuous. But you can still have cooking fun with this! I really like mixing honey with savory things, like on a cheese plate. Sharper cheeses balance the aggressive sweetness of honey well, but something like a quality mellow Gouda plays off the slight sourness and different flavor notes of an interesting honey. Try it with pate or charcuterie, too, as well as nuts and seeds (pumpkin seeds go great with honey) which you can use the honey as a kind of glue to stick everything together on a base. And that’s where the cooking comes in - make your own biscuits, crusty bread, or crackers! If you’ve never made crackers before it can be a fun project. Breadsticks are similarly one of those things a lot of folks don’t ever make at home. Plain scones are awesome with honey if you would rather do a fancy tea type situation.

I think also you could do something like make a honey syrup (just like a simple sugar syrup but with honey) and use that as a soak for a simple cake or trifle with cream. But I would hesitate to really heat it up or mix it with too many other flavors because you’ll cover up all the interesting bits and just have sweetness to taste.
posted by Mizu at 9:08 PM on September 5, 2021 [10 favorites]

The smittenkitchen honey cake with orange juice and whisky is divine!!!
posted by bookworm4125 at 9:36 PM on September 5, 2021

A honey ice cream!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 10:03 PM on September 5, 2021 [4 favorites]

This recipe is in my files - I used it a lot when I could get awesome honeys like blueberry honey, and it really showed them off. I usually bake in an 8-inch round cake pan. And these are shorthand notes, so if you have questions, let me know.

Honey Cake

From Farmhouse Cookery

3 oz butter
3 oz sugar
Cream them together.

2 eggs, 4 oz honey - add and then mix.

8 oz self-raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder - add slowly.

Mix well.

Bake 45-50 minutes at 350.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 5:19 AM on September 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

Your first batch of mead will come out a little "hot" (harsh) until it's aged, and might need some sweetening and carbonation.....but it's absolute magic to mix the honey and water and yeast and watch it bubble away, until you get that first sip!

I make mine still, like wine, not carbonated, like beer. Every batch gets a little better than the previous one.

If you want to try it, I will send you an airlock and yeast and a scoop of yeast food to make a one-gallon batch, which uses about three pounds of honey.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:34 AM on September 6, 2021

Seconding honey ice cream, specifically this recipe.
posted by dizziest at 6:37 AM on September 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

Pasteli lets the pure taste of honey shine. I like to throw in some crushed almonds or hazelnuts for variety.
posted by Scram at 11:57 AM on September 6, 2021