Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Creamed Honey



Just opened a jar of our creamed honey. We had robbed the hive just before the hive went into decline. Only took a few frames and left the bulk for them. It yielded 6 KG which we creamed despite being told it can't be done in Summer. Creamed honey is nothing more than crystallised honey where the crystals are really fine. This provides a lovely mouth feel. We had a couple of jars from another robbing which had naturally crystallised with very fine crystals and kept this aside to use as seed material.

The process is simple, add some seed material to your batch of freshly robbed honey. I have heard you can use previously crystallised honey with large crystals by heating it gently until it is liquid again. I tried this but had no success. But that could be just me. The recommendation is 1 part seed to 10 parts honey. I have used less with success.

The stirring is the critical part. Not too fast otherwise air is incorporated and you get foaming. Just a gentle central vortex. We use a Squirrel mixer. These are available on the web in various sizes, we bought the smallest. Our drill press was set at a slow speed and we stirred for 30 minutes with 6 KG of honey. The beauty of using a drill press is that it can be setup and run without having to stand in attendance. A hand drill will work but it is difficult to maintain a slow speed. One experiment we tried was using different paddles in various types of electric mixers. The problem with all these was too much speed. They also have a tendency to overheat because of the viscosity of the honey. You may need longer for bigger batches or a bigger Squirrel Mixer.

The honey was then bottled in 1 KG jars and stored in a refrigerator at 7-18 C. The ideal temperature being 14 degrees C. Ours stayed in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. Once it had crystallised it stayed that way.



References:




Creamed honey's perfect caramel colour

The Australian Supplier of the Squirrel Mixer


The Magical Squirrel Mixer



 
 
 

1 comment:

  1. Hi John, a few decades ago we were selling unblended whipped honey which was our most popular line. We used the honey when it was just starting to crystalise or becoming granular...just before what you refer to as creamed honey and put it through a regular meat mincer connected to a salvaged twin tub washing machine motor (this was the tricky bit getting the right sized cogs for the speed) What was produced was the lightest honey whip or froth that held the air beaten into it (must be refrigerated)
    Worth a tinker and a small motor for someone with your handy skills to give it a try..bet you would love it (and your honey goes further)

    ReplyDelete