How to Make Creamed Honey at Home

Creamed honey is a thick spreadable honey that is easy to make at home. Best of all, you only need one ingredient….honey.

There are several ways to make creamed honey – you can use “seed” honey or crystallized honey.

What is creamed honey?

Creamed honey, also called whipped honey, spun honey, and churned honey is honey that has crystalized with very small crystals.

One of the characteristics of raw honey is that over time it will crystalize. Some raw honey will crystalize quickly and some won’t crystalize for a year or more. There are many variables that contribute to how quickly raw honey crystalizes. Some of those variables are if the honey has been filtered or not and what temperatures the honey has been exposed to – before and after harvesting.

In order to make creamed honey, you need to use raw honey, not pasteurized honey. You should be able to find raw honey at your local farmer’s market. If not, call the county extension office and ask if there are any local beekeepers.

The difference between creamed honey and regular honey

The only difference between creamed honey and regular honey is texture. There is nothing added to creamed honey to make it creamy – to be clear there is no dairy in creamed honey.

What makes creamed honey creamy is the small glucose crystals. By breaking up large crystals and controlling the environment to encourage crystallization regular honey is turned into creamed honey.

How to make creamed honey at home

Commercially made creamed honey can take up to a week to make and the temperature is controlled. Most of us don’t have that kind of time to babysit the honey and temperature for a week. This means that homemade creamed honey may not be as creamy as commercial creamed honey. But don’t let that deter you, just adjust your expectations.

Making creamed honey with “seed” honey

One way to make creamed honey at home is to start with commercially made creamed honey and use that to “seed” raw honey. Creamed honey can be found in most grocery stores right next to liquid honey.

The recommended ratio is 1:10, one part creamed honey to 10 parts liquid raw honey. Stir the creamed honey into the liquid honey and set in a cool place (the ideal temperature is 50F). Over the next few days stir the seeded honey and in time the liquid honey will start to crystalize with small crystals.

Once this jar is fully crystalized you can use some of it as your seed honey for the next jar of creamed honey. This way you’ll never have to buy creamed honey again.

It’s important to use liquid honey that isn’t crystalizing for this recipe to work. If there are large crystals in the honey, the creamed honey will not be smooth. If the only honey you have is starting to crystalize, you can recrystallize it by warming the honey.

Making creamed honey with crystalized honey

When honey crystalizes naturally the crystals are quite large which makes crystalized honey somewhat gritty in texture. You can break up those crystals and use it to make creamed honey.

I like to use my stand mixer with the whisk attachment for this job but the paddle attachment can also be used. Even though creamed honey is also called whipped honey, you aren’t actually whipping the honey. There shouldn’t be any air in the finished product.

The mixer is just breaking up the crystals to make them smaller. You could also dry the honey out and use a mortar and pestle to break up the crystals. I just find a stand mixer much easier.

To turn the crystalized honey into creamed honey, put 1 cup crystalized honey into the stand mixer with the attachment and mix on medium speed. You can add up to 1 cup of liquid honey if you want to make a larger amount of creamed honey. Mix the honey for 20 minutes.

You’ll notice that the honey will start to turn a very light creamy white color.

Turn the mixer off and cover it with a clean kitchen towel. Let the honey rest for a couple of hours and then mix again for 20 minutes. I like to do this three or four times before jarring the honey.

Once the creamed honey is made, put it in a clean, dry jar for storing. I like to use short wide mouth canning jars. Put in the refrigerator for at least two weeks.

How to store homemade creamed honey

Regardless of how you make the homemade creamed honey, you run the risk of it separating over time, especially if your home is warm. Because of this I like to store creamed honey in the refrigerator.

If the creamed honey separates, the creamy white whipped honey will rise to the top. You can either stir it in or mix it in the mixer again.

Since creamed honey is just raw honey that has crystalized, it does not go bad and can be stored in the refrigerator or at room temperature for years. That being said, if too much moisture gets into the honey it start to ferment – which doesn’t ruin it but it does change the flavor. If that happens you can always use the fermenting honey to make mead or fermented honey and garlic.

Using creamed honey

While creamed honey can be used in drinks or for baking, it’s thick and spreads easily making it fantastic for using on biscuits, crackers, or pastries.

Michael

See all author post