You'll Heart this one

They're called Orange Salted Caramels and they are good!

This is a continuation of the fermented honey story.

My beekeeping friend Janice gave a jar to a lady who likes to bake.

This is what she came up with.

This combination of salty and sweet is the perfect treat.  And no taste of fermentation at all.

Thanks go to Meaganne.  Her recipe is below:

Honey Orange Salted Caramels

1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 vanilla beans
3/4 cups salted butter
3/4 cup honey
1 3/4 cups white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt (coarse sea salt is best)
1 orange

Directions:

Prepare your pan by greasing it with butter then lining the bottom with parchment paper.  Do not use wax paper because the caramel will stick.

Place the milk, heavy cream and 1 vanilla bean (split down the center but beans still inside the pod) in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and allow to sit for 30 minutes.  Strain out and discard the vanilla bean pod.  Measure 2 cups of the liquid.

Combine in a deep saucepan 2 cups of above liquid, 1 vanilla bean (use only the stuff inside the pod) butter, honey, sugar, juice/zest from the orange.  Do not combine the vanilla extract and the salt.

Cook over medium heat, stirring.  Use a pastry brush dipped in water and brush down any sugar that has crept up the sides of the pan.  When the mixture reaches a "hard ball temperature" (250) immediately remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt.

Pour the mixture onto the prepared pan and cool completely in the refrigerator until firm.

Once hardened cut into desired portions - use a cookie cutter.  You may need to let the caramel sit at room temperature to cut through it.  Dip the cookie cutter into sugar then drop the cut caramel into a bowl of sugar and toss to coat it.

Original recipe courtesy of:
http://www.cherryteacakes.com/2010/07/lavender-honey-caramel-candy7-cars.html

Many thanks Meaganne for these sweet treats.

Fermented Honey in my Tummy

Two posts ago I wrote about how my absent mindedness led to three partly filled pails of honey fermenting.  I knew the honey was not all cured and intended to check it for it's water content and then I forgot.

[Photo - a jar of cooked honey and cinnamon covered apples]

The result was fermented honey.  So I put two pails in the freezer where they'd sit and wait until I decided what to do with them.  The third I thought I'd experiment with.

I cooked it down into a thick sweet syrup--the idea here was to save the honey for personal consumption, not to sell it.

After boiling it down the taste wasn't bad but there was still a fruity flavour to it.  In my estimation it was edible but not tasty enough to put in my cup of tea.

But put into baking I hoped it'd do well and hide the slight fermentation flavour.

I made Apple Crisp.  I admit that I don't cook much.  I made regular traditional apple crisp first using white and brown sugar.  It turned out great and now I had a taste comparison.

Next I used the same recipe but substituted honey for the white sugar. 

I am very pleased to report it turned out fabulously!  I can breathe a sigh of relief now that I know the honey can be put to use.

Apple Crisp

10 cups all purpose apples, peeled and sliced

1 cup honey (used instead of 1 cup of white sugar)

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 to 1/2 cup water

Topping

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar – packed

½ cup melted butter

Directions- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (75 degrees C)

- Mostly fill a baking dish with the sliced apples. Mix the honey, flour, water and cinnamon together and spoon over the apples. (Additional water can be added if the honey is very thick and less if its very runny).

- Topping – combine oats, flour, brown sugar and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the

apples

- Bake at 350 (175C) for 30 to 45 minutes

Serve warm with ice cream or a splash of milk. It’s good cold too.

And finally, don't forget to buy a refractometer so you can check your honey.