Many of us view honey simply as a sweetener. However, there’s much more to this magical ingredient of nature. The several different flavors of honey, ranging from mild to strong, depending on its nectar source, make it the perfect ingredient to take your food to the next level. On the other hand, honey’s unique texture and color can give your food a new look.
It’s not surprising that dishes such as chicken wings and granola bars often use honey as an essential ingredient. However, the health benefits of honey go beyond its unique tastes and textures, as it has been an effective medicine throughout history. With such a beneficial ingredient in your food, you can create the perfect healthy diet. However, it can indeed be hard to come up with foods you can pair with honey. So, here are some of the top things you can make with honey.
Granola bars
We all like to eat granola bars, as they are healthy and tasty alternatives to snack bars and chocolate bars. But when it comes to recreating granola bars at home, we often create dry and crumbling granola bars. Now, this is where honey will come in handy. The chewy and sticky texture makes it the perfect ingredient to make a tasty granola bar that you can snack on every day. Honey can keep the granola bar glued together even after baking under high temperatures while giving a chewy texture. What’s best is that honey adds to the flavor of the granola bar, making it tastier than ever. So, get some oats, eggs, butter, and most importantly, honey to create the perfect granola bars.
However, if you want to take your honey recipes, such as granola bars, to the next level, choosing the right type of honey is essential. The mildly sweet flavor of acacia honey, coupled with its floral and vanilla aroma, makes it the perfect honey type for several recipes. Not to mention, its beautiful color can make your food look more appealing. So, make sure to get acacia honey and treat your taste buds.
Sauces
Most of us think of honey as an ingredient for sweet foods such as granola bars. However, the unique sweetness isn’t like that of sugar. Honey can help in creating several different mouthwatering sauces. For example, honey mustard often enhances sandwiches’ flavor and serves as a dip for fried chicken. You can make this delicious sauce in minutes by simply mixing Dijon mustard, cayenne pepper, mayonnaise, vinegar, and honey.
However, honey mustard isn’t the only sauce. You can also create honey garlic sauce with soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, garlic, vinegar, and cornstarch. But if you’re having a hard time making these sauces, honey can be used on its own as a sauce and glaze for chicken and other meats. Alongside using honey sauces as dips and spreads, you can also use them as marinades for different types of meats. Moreover, honey is can also add flavors to your salads. You can boost the flavor of any salad by adding some honey mixed with vinaigrette.
Honey butter
Undoubtedly, honey itself can be an excellent topping for bread, pancakes, biscuits, and even vegetables. However, if you want an even tastier and richer topping, making some honey paste is the best choice. The creaminess of butter added to the sweetness of honey can boost the flavor of just about anything. Alongside spreading it on waffles, toasts, and pancakes, you can add honey butter on ice creams, sweet potatoes and even melt it on fried chicken.
What’s best is that making honey butter is the tastiest yet most straightforward thing to make with honey. All you need to do is mix one cup of softened unsalted butter with one-third of a cup of honey, together with some salt and confectioner’s sugar. However, you can add more flavor to the honey butter by adding ground cinnamon and vanilla extract.
Cookies and cakes
Baked sweets such as cookies and cakes are already quite mouthwatering. However, you can enhance their flavors by adding some honey. As a result, not only will you enjoy the gooey texture and unique sweetness of honey, but you also will limit your use of sugar. Honey is lower than sugar on the glycemic index, which means it won’t raise your blood sugar levels quickly. Alongside making your food healthier, the sticky texture of honey will make it easier for cookies to stick together, increasing your chances of making the perfect cookies.
What’s best is that making honey cookies or cakes is more straightforward than you’d expect. All you need to do is add a tablespoon of honey into the recipe you use to make cookies or cakes. However, you can add slightly more honey and ultimately emit sugar from your recipe if you like your food naturally sweetened. Once you’re ready to put your honey-flavored cookies or cakes into the oven, be careful of the baking time because honey-sweetened foods brown quite fast.
Soups
You may not have heard of this before, but honey is an ingredient that is often used in soups to enhance their flavor. From sweet potato and carrot soups to ginger and curry-flavored soups, all make use of the strong flavor of honey. However, if you think honey sweetens soups, that’s not the case. Instead, the sweetness of honey helps balance bitter, sour, or spicy soups, adding more complexity to the soup’s flavor. For example, if you’re making cauliflower soup, adding a few tablespoons of honey can control the bitterness of the cauliflower. You can also add honey to your soup if you’ve accidentally made it too spicy or sour.
More importantly, honey adds to the nutritional value of your soup, making it even healthier.
Conclusion
Honey is a natural sweetener. However, it has more uses than just being used to sweeten tea or coffee. The unique sweetness of honey and its gooey texture, coupled with its beautiful color, make it the perfect ingredient to take your recipes to the next level. By simply adding a few tablespoons of honey to your food, you can create unique flavors while enjoying the health benefits of honey. So, make sure to make some of the food items mentioned above to make the most out of honey.
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