Honey Syrup

Do you like honey? If you do, honey syrup should be on your shelves.

It’s a cocktail upgrader, coffee sweetener, cough fighter, pancake topper, cake drizzler, greek yoghurt dresser, hot toddy helper… the list goes on.

A flavourful alternative to plain sugar syrup, the honey version has plenty of ways to make life in the kitchen tastier and easier.

Speaking of making kitchen life easier; we bought a kitchen. A whole new kitchen. Well, we still need to choose a sink, tap, worktops, backsplash and floor tiles. The big part is over though.

We took my Parents with us at the weekend to the design appointment for moral support and general life know-how. My Dad came in very handy with his bartering skills and I feel like we got a really good deal on a kitchen that we both love.

I’m planning on blogging the process and sharing it with you all seeing as so much of what I do is based in that space. Right now the kitchen is on hold for us until February 2016. That gives us chance to price up the things we still need, find a date that suits us with the fitter and save for all the extras. I hope that we can bring that date forward and start next year off with the last big renovation job. We shall see. I’ll keep you posted.

So, honey syrup. You sweet thing you.

I’m sharing this recipe as a step towards a series of honey syrup cocktails that I’ll be posting over the coming months but if you make a batch, there are plenty of uses for it.

I used set honey for mine because I find it much easier to work with. Less sticky jars, fingers and spoons.

“What’s the difference between set and runny honey?”, I hear you ask. Well, it is down to the sugar balance between dextrose and fructose. The type of crop source that the bees are using determines that balance with different flowers yielding a different results. A hive near a clover or oil seed rape source will create honey with high dextrose that is likely to set cloudy. Heather on the other hand is renowned for giving incredibly clear, runny honey.

High dextrose honey is often ‘creamed’ to make sure the set honey is as smooth as it can be rather than crystallised. To do that, they blend two batches of different ages together. The fresh honey is warmed until liquid and then blended with the older batch which has already set firm. The result is the type of honey that smoothly spreads and has a velvety mouth feel. Delightful!

Find the base recipe for my honey syrup below as well as lots of flavour ideas. Try infusing ginger for a warming kick, lemon to brighten it up or even some fresh herbs like thyme.