SC - Honey & Oogy gingerbread

[Linda Taylor]

>On Thu, 20 Jan 2000 09:18:15 -0800
>'Lainie wrote:

>Does anyone know if different varieties of honey have a different
>viscosity? Or should I not poke at that particular hive?


Honey definitely varies in viscosity, and it does affect the cooking 
characteristics. Karl and I make our own granola (yeah, I know, and we're 
not even living in Eugene!) using honey for the sweetener. Our granola 
technique is to bring the honey and oil to a boil, stir it into the grain-y 
stuff,and bake it until it is lightly browned (it doesn't get crunchy until 
it cools, like Stefan's sweet wafers).
    We usually get local "varietal" raw honeys rather than the standardised 
pasteurised stuff. Bees feeding on different flowers make honey with 
different flavors (we just discovered "Meadow Foam" honey, from an Oregon 
wildflower, that tastes like it has vanilla and cream in it!) The 
thickness/viscosity differs as well. The bees have to concentrate the nectar 
to make it into honey, and I understand some hives just concentrate it more 
than others. When we use a thick honey, we just bring it to a boil and pour 
it on, but we have found that if the honey is thin, we must boil it for 
several minutes to reduce it, or bake the granola much longer to get it 
crunchy. This also means we have to use more honey to begin with, or the 
finished product will not be as sweet as it should. I am sure this would 
affect any other recipe with a significant amount of honey in it.

Morwyn
(whose honey is somewhat thicker since he married me)


Morwyn of Wye, O.L.
Barony of Three Mountains, An Tir
(Portland, OR, USA)
mka Linda Taylor, lmt_inpnw at hotmail.com

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