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TIP OF THE DAY: Baking With Honey

June 13, 2013 at 8:23 am · Filed under Cooking & Baking, Honey-Sugar-Syrup, Recipes, Tip Of The Day

If you love to bake but want to use less refined sugar, consider honey as a substitute. Here are tips on cooking with honey from Honey.com, the website of the National Honey Board, where you can find every type of recipe plus beekeepers in your area:

SUBSTITUTING HONEY IN BAKING

Honey helps enhance browning, so it creates beautifully browned baked goods. The extra body provided by honey adds shape to cakes, pastries and other desserts. If you need to prepare baked goods in advance, honey gives them that “bakery fresh” taste, even days later.

  • Substitute honey for up to one-half of the sugar.
  • For easy removal when measuring honey, spray the measuring cup with cooking spray before adding honey.
  • Reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe by ¼ cup for each cup of honey used in baked goods.
  • Add about ½ teaspoon baking soda for each cup of honey used in baked goods.
  • You’ll need to increase beating time and speed, since it takes more vigorous beating to achieve the correct texture with honey.
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    Reach for the honey instead of the sugar. Photo courtesy Michael S. Richter | Morguefile.
  • Reduce oven temperatures by 25°F to prevent over-browning of baked goods.

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    SELECTING HONEY FOR BAKING & COOKING

  • Select a mild, paler honey, such as clover, when delicate flavors predominate—baked goods, glazed vegetables, and subtle fruits like bananas, for example.
  • Select stronger, amber-colored honeys to accompany stronger flavors, such as peanut butter, meats and strong cheeses.
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    Seabass with Aji Chile Honey Marinade.
    Photo courtesy Honey.com. Here‘a the recipe.    		   GREAT HONEY COMBINATIONS

  • FRUIT: The combination of sweet fruits and honey brings out the best flavors of each. Apple slices dipped in honey is a luscious snack. Try sliced bananas, hazelnut spread and honey on toast or graham crackers for a tasty blend of flavors and textures.
  • ICE CREAM: Honey acts as an anti-freeze, which makes the ice cream’s consistency smoother and protects against crystallization. Here’s a recipe for peach ice cream with honey.
  • SALTY SNACKS: The combination of salt and sweet is a palate pleaser. We love dipping pretzels into honey, and making honey Cornflakes clusters instead of Rice Krispies treats.
  • CANDIED BACON: This recent craze is a special treat, but here‘s a tip: When making honey-candied bacon, the honey should be added to the bacon strips only after they have been cooked part of the way through. If the honey is added too soon, the honey will caramelize too quickly and the bacon will burn.
  • BREAD: Honey is a delicious bread spread instead of jam. Honey with buttermilk biscuits can’t be beat.
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  • SALAD DRESSING: If you like sweetness in your salad dressing, add a half teaspoon of honey. It acts as a stabilizer, too, so the vinaigrette won’t separate.
     
    MORE WAYS TO USE HONEY

    From appetizers and main dishes to sauces and sides, anywhere a sweetener is used you can substitute honey. We love it as a meat glaze and in marinades. Honey enhances browning and crisping, providing a more beautiful roast.

    Check out the honey-accented recipes at Honey.com.
      

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    RECIPE: Blackberry Cocktail & Brambleberries

    June 13, 2013 at 7:31 am · Filed under Cocktails & Spirits

    We recently saw “branbleberry tart” on a menu. It turned out to be a blackberry-raspberry combination.

    Brambleberry is a British term for blackberry (Rubus fruticosa). In the U.S., it includes other members of the thorny berry genus Rubus, such as the raspberry (Rubus idaeus).

    It’s easy to whip up an easy brambleberry tart: Just arrange the berries in a buttery pâte brisée crust (short crust—here’s the recipe), either:

  • top a layer of crème pâtissière (cream puff filling—recipe)
  • With a glaze of melted currant jelly (just pour over the fruit)

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    Then, relax with a branbleberry cocktail. This recipe is courtesy TheBar.com and Tanqueray London Dry Gin.

    		  


    Bottoms up with a blackberry cocktail.
    Photo courtesy TheBar.com.

     


    Butte blackberries. Photo by Bob Nichols |
    U.S. Agricultural Research Service.     		  BLACKBERRY COCKTAIL RECIPE

    Ingredients Per Cocktail

  • 1.25 ounces London Dry Gin
  • .5 ounce créme de cassis (blackcurrant) liqueur
  • .5 ounce lemon juice
  • .5 ounce simple syrup (buy or make with this recipe)
  • 5 blackberries
  • Ice
  • Garnish: lime wheel, a cocktail pick of raspberries

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    Preparation

    1. COMBINE gin, liqueur, lemon juice and simple syrup in a shaker with ice; shake well.

    2. STRAIN into an ice-filled rocks glass.

    3. POUR the creme de cassis over the top. Garnish with a lime wheel and raspberries.

     
    WHAT IS DRY GIN?

    Gin has been made from juniper berries since the Middle Ages; as with most spirits, it was originally an herbal medicine. The Dutch physician Franciscus Sylvius (1614-1672) is credited with the invention of gin. The name comes from jenever, the Dutch word for juniper.

    Today there are numerous origins, styles, and flavor profiles that build on the juniper. London Dry Gin is the world’s most popular gin type.

    It‘s very different from jenever (also spelled genever). It is called dry gin because there’s no sugar to add sweetness.

    London dry gins also tend to be higher in alcohol: 90 proof as opposed to the more typical 80 proof. The flavor profile is characteristically citrussy, with lemon and/or orange peel among the numerous botanicals that provide the flavor. (Here are some of the different types of botanicals that can go into gin.)

    Beefeater, Bombay and Tanqueray are well-known brands of London Dry Gin. Gin trivia: While gin was distilled in London centuries ago, only one gin distiller remains there today.
     
    FIND MORE OF OUR FAVORITE COCKTAIL RECIPES.
      

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    TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Perky Jerky

    June 12, 2013 at 7:53 am · Filed under Giftable, Snacks, Top Pick Of The Week

    We receive lots of jerky samples. Most are tough and not anything we’d want to gnaw.

    Then there’s tender, delightful jerky, like Perky Jerky. In four varieties each of beef and turkey jerky, it has what marketers call “added value”:

    Perky Jerky is caffeinated with guarana (gwahr-uh-NAH), an Amazonian fruit whose seeds contain about twice the concentration of caffeine in coffee beans. It’s typically found in energy drinks.

    So look at Perky Jerky as an energy snack, or as a meaty snack that happens to provide an energy boost. The stylish packages are nice enough for gifting and party favors.

    Perky Jerky, beef or turkey, is available in plain as well as:

  • Hot & Bothered Perky Jerky
  • Sweet & Spicy Perky Jerky
  • Teriyaki Perky Jerky
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    Perky Jerky, a grab-and-go snack, energzer. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.
     

    Head to PerkyJerky.com to get yours, or read the full review.
      

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