Tag: honey

Only Honey Oatmeal Cookies

One thing I really get sick of is googling “honey cookie recipe” and finding recipes loaded with sugar and a tablespoon or two of honey added. The point is, I want only honey for a sweetener. I could easily walk around glued to an IV of pure sugar and be happy – and addicted. Honey does not have the same addictive quality as sugar as far as I am concerned.

Oatmeal Cookies made only with honey for sweetening!

So, I came across a recipe at last at Amy’s Healthy Baking blog. I am totally delighted. No, they are not super sweet, but they are soft and chewy. I think my cookies came out a bit less soft than hers, but part of it is my oven – it tends to run hot – or cold – depending on its mood and time of month. She says 325F – and mine was up to 347 and 364 at times. I’ll get it down. The other issue could be I didn’t weigh my ingredients, but just did a rough measure. As a result, it could be my dry ingredients were in greater quantity than she calls for. But who cares? The results are tasty! I added walnuts, too, and more raisins, but I am something of glutton in that regard.

INGREDIENTS 

  • 1 cup (100 g.) instant oats (I used a mixed oat hot cereal mix that I have been eating up)
  • ¾ cup (90g) white flour (you can use whole wheat, gluten free, etc.)
  • 1 ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. nutmeg, mace, allspice, cloves, or any combo thereof
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp (28g) coconut oil or unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
  • 1 large egg, room temperature
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ cup (120mL) honey (could use maple syrup or agave, too)
  • 1/3 – 1/2 c. raisins, rehydrated
  • 1/2 c. chopped walnuts

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Whisk together the oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter or coconut oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir in the honey or agave. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Fold in the raisins. Chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 325°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat
  • Drop the cookie dough into 15 rounded scoops onto the prepared sheet, and flatten slightly. Bake at 325°F for 7-9 minutes if your oven runs hot; 11-14 per Amy if your temperature is spot on. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Yield: 14-15 cookies

Notes

I highly recommend you go to Amy’s page – link is above – to get specific info. I need to work a bit on this recipe, but it is a keeper in my opinion. It is a real cookie! So much could be done with it, too, as a basis for other cookies, too. The lack of sweetness may need a slight increase in salt to round out the flavor. Also, I didn’t chill the dough.

I did test cookies, too. The first two were baked for 10 minutes. They held together well and were nicely browned, but not as soft as I might like. The second round were baked for 7 minutes. As per Amy’s instructions, I let them sit on the pan for 10 minutes before removing to the wire rack. They seem a bit raw in the middle, and are crumblier than I would like in a cookie. Maybe 8 minutes would be better.

Using honey seems to mean needing a lower cooking / baking temperature, and perhaps a longer cooking time, too. Mine were dryer and my oven was variable, so the results were different – but still delicious.

At last, a cookie sweetened only with honey!

Honey-Sweetened Rice Pudding

For baking, I try to avoid refined sugar these days. I already have a tendency to bounce off the walls if my energy is not directed, irritating everyone around me and annoying myself as well. Honey does not have the same vibratory effect on me as white sugar, for whatever reason, no matter the arguments given that honey and sugar are the same thing. I don’t really care. The fact is, that honey and I are better behaved together than sugar and me. The biggest thing is that recipes called “honey this” and “honey that” often have a ton of sugar as well. I’ve even seen recipes labelled “honey blah” with a tablespoon of honey and a half cup of sugar. In this age of massive lies, what else is new? So, I created this recipe for those of you who like rice pudding and want real honey-sweetened somethings.

Honey-Sweetened Rice Pudding

2/3 c. honey
4 c. unsweetened almond milk, or milk of your choice
3/4 c. short grain rice
1/4 c. cream
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 – 1/2 c. raisins or other dried fruit
1/2 c. toasted almonds

Method

Mix honey, milk, and rice together in 2 qt. sauce pan. Watching carefully and stirring as needed, over medium-high heat, bring mixture to boil. Once boiling, drop to a simmer, and stir periodically. Note: Almond milk does not tend to boil over but regular milk does. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, or longer. Rice will cook and pudding will begin to thicken. When pudding is thickened, stir in cream and raisins. Continue to cook a bit longer, maybe 5 minutes. Take off heat. Add vanilla and almonds. Good warm, and cold; will be thicker if refrigerated.

The Mead Maker’s Hand

As some of you may know, the other half is a brewer. Here, we have a year-long project started the other day: Raspberry Mead. 5 gallons. It was impossible to find raspberry juice locally, so we special-ordered a concentrate of raspberry juice – something like 4 times concentrated into this bottle. Cost was a bit more than one would think, $61.00 US. The honey for the mead weighed in at 12 lbs., and locally produced. Let’s see what this is like in a year! Mark your calendars.

Scanned in a Pakon 135, Olympus XA4, Kodak TMax 400 shot at box speed.

Honey Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

Ice cream anyone? Really, frozen yogurt. I made some and it is really, really good and rich. I have a Krups freezer that goes around in circles to churn it. So, here is my recipe.

Honey Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1/4 – 1/3 c. honey (vary with your desired sweetness)
  • 2.5 – 3.0 c. SCD yogurt – strained

 

Using a double boiler, heat water below level of upper pan. As water is heating, beat together egg yolks and honey in upper pan. (If you heat the honey to make it easier to pour, watch your temperature. You don’t want to get it hot enough to cook the yolks.) Beat vigorously with a whisk. Put egg-honey mixture pan on top of boiler, continue to beat vigorously. After mixture begins to thicken, beat in yogurt – don’t dump it at once into eggs, but perhaps a cup at a time. Using an instant-read thermometer, beat and heat to 165F. At this temperature, remove upper pan, pour mixture into container to cool. At this point I added

  • 1 T. vanilla extract

Cool mixture in refrigerator until chilled.

Before using the ice cream maker, you may wish to sieve the ice cream if it looks lumpy. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s directions – mine took about 20 minutes.

This ice cream (yogurt) is very rich because of the egg custard. The yogurt adds a tang which is a nice contrast to the honey. I think this could be the basis for all flavors – like raspberry, etc.

Store in freezer-safe container, and then – DEVOUR!

Honey Bourbon Peach BBQ Sauce

Monday is the beer brewer’s birthday, so we are doing a small gathering of the clan for a barbecue.  With any BBQ, you need a smoker, BBQ sauce, and pork ribs.  (At least we think so!)  So, Mr. put together a rub and I am simmering the BBQ sauce as we speak.  As with all my recipes, this is a bit of this and that, and while I sort of followed a recipe, I sort of did my own thing.  I like my sauce sweet and sour and hot all at once, and lately I have been in a real mood for peaches and bourbon for a sauce, so here is my attempt!

Honey Bourbon Peach BBQ Sauce

2 sweet onions, finely chopped
4-6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
8 peaches, peeled, pitted, chopped
2 c. tomato sauce
3/4 c. honey
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1/4 – 1/2 c. bourbon
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
2 small hot chili peppers, seeded and chopped (I used Black Cobra)
1-2 T. hot chili flakes
2 T. chipotle chili powder or a few chipotles from a can
1 t. pepper
1-2 T. ground ginger
1/2 t. salt

Method

Saute together onions, garlic and chopped tomatoes (if used) until soft and translucent. Place chopped peaches and onion-garlic-tomato mixture in with peaches. Blend until smooth and creamy. You may need to blend in small batches; as each batch is done, put into large pan. Once all the blending is done, leave about 1/4 of the blender filled and add remainder of ingredients. Blend until smooth. Pour into pan with rest of sauce. Simmer on stove top for about 30 minutes. Taste it as it begins to cook – you may need to adjust the flavors to your own liking.

Cool.

Yield: about 6 c. (from what I am guestimating)