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There’s no doubt that honey is a versatile and delicious staple in everyone's pantry. If you want to take your honey to the next level, why not try Infusing honey. It's a simple way to add another level of flavour. The method is really quite simple, you just need honey, your flavouring ingredients and a jar to store it in.
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Honey
A mild honey works best for infusing honey, we like to use raw honey, or our kids honey. This helps to allow your chosen flavours to really come through. -
Flavourings
Use dried herbs, spices, fruits or even nuts to add flavor to your honey. Just make sure that everything is fully dried (ie don't use fresh herbs), as fresh ingredients can lead to contamination and mold. -
Containers/Jars
Any sterilised food grade container will work to store honey. However to keep it simple you could reuse an old jam jar, or even your empty honey jars. just insure you sterilise them properly before using. -
Strainer
You can use a simple kitchen strainer or some muslin cloth or a nut bag to strain your infused honey once you've reached the desired flavour.
Flavour Ideas
Here are so simple ideas for flavourings, and if you can't choose just one, don't worry you can get creative and combine them and see what you come up with. We love combining different spices to add a warming sweetness to curries, stews and even desserts.
Spices
Simple spices like cinnamon, cloves and star anise add an aroma and warmth that go well with the sweetness of honey.
Dried Herbs
Dried herbs such as rosemary, ginger and mint add wonderful flavors to honey.
Fruits and Vegetables
Get creative with dried citrus, whether it's lemons, limes or oranges, they all add their own unique flavour to honey. Or turn up the heat with dried peppers or chilli.
Nuts
You can even try dried nuts or coffee beans to infuse your honey to create complex and unique flavor profiles.
So you've got your honey and your ingredients, what's next. Well it all just takes time. The timing depends on how strong you want your flavour to be, and what type of ingredient you're using. A super hot chilli will need less time, whereas a subtle chilli may need more. So it's best to just taste you honey every couple of days until you get the right flavour you're after.
Then you simply strain your honey and store in a sterilised container and use as you would a regular honey, or get creative and add to different meals and dishes.
You really are only limited by your imagination, so grab a jar of honey, have a look in your pantry for flavours and just get creating.