Honey… who doesn’t love honey? I’ve always been fascinated by the production of honey and how hard all those little honey bees work. Did you know that the average worker honey bee only produces 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in a lifetime, and that it takes two million flowers for honey bees to make one pound of honey?! I guess I should feel guilty about eating so much honey, but since it’s the by-product of an activity of nature that has been occurring for 10 – 20 million years, somebody has to keep all that honey from going to waste.
The flavor of a particular honey is determined by the flora on which the bees feed. The flavor can be described as floral, fruity, citrus, chocolate, malt, grassy, woody, nutty, tangy, buttery, and caramel – just to name a few. There is actually a Eucalyptus honey which is described as tasting like bubble gum, one I’d love to try! There are so many flavors of honey that UC Davis developed a Honey Flavor Wheel. One way to enjoy the flavor of honey is in a Honey Butter. I have two honey butters that I’m sharing with you today – both of which taste completely different because of the two completely different tasting honeys.
A couple of months ago I received two Happy Valley honeys from New Zealand. One was a Clover Field Honey and the other a Rewarewa Native Honey. These honeys are distinctively different, each with its own unique richness and flavor that far surpasses any honey I’ve ever tried. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get enough of the Rewarewa honey. It was these honeys that inspired this Honey Butter. I’ve been using these butters on toast, hot yeast bread, cornbread, and warm flour tortillas. The other night I replaced the ghee in these sweet potatoes with the clover field honey butter. When I get my weekly craving for cinnamon toast, I’ll spread some honey butter on hot toast and sprinkle with cinnamon. I’ve yet to discover all the many ways to use honey butter, but I’m sure many of you will be able to help me with more ideas.
You can learn more about these Happy Valley New Zealand honeys right after the recipe.
Interesting read: 15 Fascinating Facts About Honey Bees.
Honey Butter
“*”See Kitchen Notes for more information.
- 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
- 2 Tbsp. honey
- ¼ heaping tsp. cinnamon – optional*
Leave the butter on the counter to soften or soften in the microwave about 10 seconds. If it melts, that’s o.k.
- Add the honey.
Using a fork, whisk together the butter and the honey until the honey melts and it starts forming an emulsion. If it doesn’t form an emulsion, place in the refrigerator for 5 minutes, then whisk until smooth. You may need to refrigerator and whisk a couple of times to get a buttery texture.
- If you don’t plan to use the butter for a couple of days, then refrigerate. It will harden once refrigerated. To use it as a “spread”, remove from the refrigerator about an hour before you need it.
Add cinnamon to create a quick and easy spread for cinnamon toast.
Spread on toast, hot yeast bread, cornbread, and warm tortillas. The other night I replaced the ghee in these sweet potatoes with the clover field honey butter. It was delicious.
To learn about different flavors of honey and advantages of honey, be sure to read the whole post.
Happy Valley Honeys from New Zealand
Happy Valley is a distributor of New Zealand honeys. During the fall they collect, process and package honeys from all around New Zealand. Happy Valley has several retail stores in a variety of locations throughout New Zealand, Australia, Asia, and other locations around the world. One can also buy online at places like Amazon.
The two honeys that I received were the Clover Field honey and the Rewarewa honey. Below is a brief description of both.
Clover Field Honey – This is a light colored honey with a buttery texture and a floral, citrus flavor with a hint of vanilla. Compare to the Rewarewa honey, it is milder and sweeter in flavor, but compared to New Mexico honey, it is a little more robust. I love it with ginger and orange flavors, and it works especially well in ginger tea and my afternoon coconut chai. It also is a nice component in a Kansas City style BBQ sauce. (The first picture shows the honey butter that was made with this Clover Field honey.)
Rewarewa Native Honey – This is probably one of the most unique and robust honeys I’ve ever tried. Its color is dark amber and its flavor is that of a rich, dark caramel or that of toffee. It’s not as sweet as the clover honey, but makes a flavorful sweetener for baked goods and other sweet dishes. We love it drizzled on biscuits, poured inside a warm sopapilla, and dissolved in a little bourbon for a hot toddy. I do have to say that it is too much for my morning teas as its flavor overpowers the flavor of the teas. Other than that, I love this honey!!! I’m looking forward to discovering more uses for both of these honeys. (The second picture shows the butter made with this honey. You can see how much darker it is.)
Disclaimer – I received no monetary compensation for this post, just two jars of honey. The recipe and the opinions expressed here are my own.
Here is another butter I know you’ll enjoy.
This is my childhood 🙂 I used to love this butter on warm challah for the breakfast.
Making these right now!!! these looks so amazing. thanks for the recipe.
Thanks Archana!
So much love for bees and the work that they do for us. Our food supply would be in grave danger without them. In recent times I’ve become increasingly concerned about the use of neonics (Neonicotinoids) a class of systemic pesticides that research indicates is having a dramatic impact on the lifespan of bees – aka: it’s killing them. There is legislation in place in Ontario to significantly reduce use and the EU has gone back and forth on it finding itself under pressure from both sides enviro vs. agri (sorry, I’m a geek at heart).
Anyway, I’m a big fan of flavoured butters – savoury, sweet & herbed – they could not be simpler to pull together and bring a delicious, sometimes surprising kick of flavor to food (I get really excited when restaurants serve them too and am always intrigued by their variations). I love how you describe the different range of flavors found in honey and where they came from. I was considering taking a wine appreciation class but you know what? pfft, now I’m thinking honey appreciation is where it’s at :o) thanks MJ.
Nothing wrong with being a geek! I’ve been one all of my life. 🙂 The pesticide issue and bees is a huge problem worldwise. I believe Europe has created the most legislation to help save the bees. Apparently Scotts has just announced to remove neonicotinoids from its products, so at least “someone” is listening. We just need everyone to listen.
When I was doing this post, I thought about how much fun it would be to have a honey tasting party. 🙂 That would be fun wouldn’t it!? Let me know if you have one. I’d love to know how it went.
Now who couldn’t resist a biscuit or muffin with honey butter on it.
Totally agree! Thanks Karen!
I love honey butter and I can eat it whole day. This is such a beautiful post!
Thank you so much Kushi!
Dear Peach Lady,
Honestly, I don’t know how I never thought of this before. This is so simple it is brilliant. Will you permit me to put this wonderful honey recipe on my blog? I have been wanting to put up a walnuts + honey snack. Would you consider a guest post perhaps. I don’t feel comfortable to just rip off your recipe with a link.
Zsuzsa, I’m flattered! Of course you can put this recipe on your post! Just give me credit for it which I know you’ll do anyway. I’d love to see how you use it in your walnut and honey snack. Thank you so much!!! (Sorry for the delayed response. Life has been a whirlwind lately.)
Thank you so much!
Thank you Peach Lady!
A good, homemade honey butter on cornbread… it doesn’t get much better than that! I’ve never tried eucalyptus honey either, though I’d love to.
Thanks so much Viviane! Oh yes – honey and cornbread is awesome!
I think it amazing how the flavors of the honey taste different by the different types of flowers they pollinate..etc. Honey is one thing I can never be out of as our family loves it. I love your quick and easy recipe for honey butter. I bet that little dash of salt makes the flavor pop.
Totally agree! Makes me wonder why there isn’t a honey tasting bar somewhere. Thanks Bobbi!
Thanks for the info and the great recipes! We both just posted bee-worthy stuff! I can’t wait to make some biscuits and try this!!! Love the addition of the cinnamon!
Thanks Debra! Let me know how your bees do this year.
Before I came here in New Zealand I thought there were only one type of honey until we visited a big honey farm near Hawkes Bay area, there I was educated and learned a lot of its different types, whats good is that there were some tasting too so I got to try what I learned that day. I guess my favourite one was the Rewarewa, they have that distinct taste that was really good and it was not that sweet.
I’m envious Raymund! When I was asked to select a couple of honeys to try, the description of the Rewarewa really caught my eye. Once I tried it, I was hooked. It’s so unique and delicious!
What a wonderful idea! Honey butter is something I’ve never tasted and never thought of making, so thank you so much for this great idea! Moreover, since the butter takes flavours in all their strength, your two butters must be really completely different!
I love honey but only in savoury dishes, especially in Korean cuisine: I use it instead of the syrup featured in many recipes (I love the typical Korean sweet and hot flavours).
Honey is always the thing that convinces people who say being “sceptical” about the bad side of pesticides… We have a cousin in France, who is an organic honey producer and he says that if nothing changes, soon the bee will be a rare insect in the developped world. Some people he knows have lost half of their bees in recent years because of the huge amounts of pesticides. I hope honey will not become a
(I’m now actually having a Korean meal with honey! Shoyu chicken with gochujang. What a coincidence 🙂 ).
Thanks so much Sissi! When I was research the New Zealand honey I read the the Rewarewa honey was commonly used in Korean dishes. So next time I do Korean, I’m going to try it and of course I’ll add gochujang :)). I know what you mean of pesticides and bees. It’s scary. A couple of years ago a father and her daughter here in New Mexico converted a large shipping truck to a environment for bees (temps and humidities, etc.) They sold a bunch of bees hives to local bee farmers, then drove out to California and bough the hives, bringing back here. Apparently, it was quite successful. They could have lost their shirts, but because of careful planning, the bees survived.
Last spring we had some wild bees build a hive on a tree limb next door. We didn’t know they were there until the swarmed one afternoon when Bobby got out of the car. He found the hive and called a beekeeper who came over and got them. Of course several were left behind which was great because they really worked out garden that summer. 🙂
Great idea to use honey in Korean dishes, but maybe don’t use the most precious one… If you have good quality delicately-flavoured honey, you will lose its wonderful taste in any Korean warm dish. It will be fantastic of course in cold ones. (The only honey that hasn’t lost its flavours was chestnut honey, but the acacia or thyme honeys tasted all the same after the cooking session).
Bee keeping sounds like a fascinating activity. I hope the bee keepers you talk about are still successful.
I wonder if honey from wild bees tastes different…
Interesting about the honey loosing it’s unique flavor after cooking. Chestnut honey? I’d love to try that one!
Well, from my experience, when you have acacia honey, for example, after simmering in a sauce, it ends up just with generic (though strong) honey flavour; no more flower of herb aroma you smell with raw honey.
Chestnut honey has been an exception until now but I still have to use buckwheat honey. I’ve always loved it in Poland, but it’s difficult to find here.
I LOVE honey, MJ. It truly is amazing how different they taste and I love trying new varieties. Your honey butter looks luscious! And I bet it’s perfect on a warm piece of cornbread! : )
Thanks so much Anne! Warm tortillas and cornbread – you can’t go wrong. 🙂
Pumpkin-flavored honey butter with a hint of pumpkin pie spice makes a delicious spread for toast, bagels, muffins, or pancakes on Christmas morning or for any special holiday breakfast.
OH I like the idea of the pumpkin spice! Need to try that. Thanks!
I wouldn’t skip cinnamon! I love it and so do I honey! Pinned!
Thanks so much Katerina!
We use honey a lot. We use it on smoothies, bbq glaze, marinades. I love honey on freshly baked bicuits. I would definitely add the cinnamon to this. I hope you are having a wonderful week, MJ. 🙂
There are so many possibilities! The baked biscuits with honey are almost as good as sopapillas with honey. 🙂 thanks Ray!
Honey butter on cornbread … nothing like it! And I appreciate the various flavor different flowers give honey. It is subtle, but nice. 🙂
That’s my favorite Judy! thanks!
I actually love the addition of cinnamon in this sweetened butter, MJ. Gotta give this a try.
Happy Spring!
Angie
Thanks Angie and a Happy Spring to you as well!
This is a facepalm post. (Say that 3 times fast!) I’ve made butter countless times and flavored it with herbs, sour cream, yogurt, you name it. Never once did I think of honey. Well, I can promise you that my honey butter froughtis about to come to an end. Just think of my future stacks of pancakes. Oh, boy!
As for the bees, just last week Maryland became the first state to follow the EU’s lead and ban certain chemicals that have proven disastrous to hives around the world. Europe is already seeing hives rebound. If more states pass similar laws, we, too, should see things improve for our bees.
I know what you mean John! I’ve done a few face palms before as well. 🙂 Congratulations on Maryland!!! We need all of the positive example we can get to save the bees.
I went on a date with a vegan recently, he said he had never had honey before – WT?! Crazy to think someone has never tasted the deliciousness that is honey. We have a couple of really fabulous local suppliers, tastes sharp, kinda like eucalyptus. Anyways… I digress. Love your honey butter, not sure I would be able to control myself though, small batches for me. 🙂
Recently on a cooking show a vegan said that he didn’t eat honey because of the crowded conditions that humans force them to live in. Say what?!!? Obviously, he didn’t know anything about bees. Small batches of this honey is a good idea. It’s addicting. 🙂
Wait until I tell Mrs KR about the cinnamon in this! She loves cinnamon toast, and mixing it in the butter with honey sounds wonderful. This is terrific — really inspired. Thanks. And thank you, busy bees. 🙂
The cinnamon butter is GREAT! But then I am a huge fan of cinnamon toast. Bobby not so much. Hope Mrs KR enjoys it. 🙂 Thanks John!
My mom would always have honey on the table for breakfast—and she made us honey butter on occasion, too. I’m thinking she just winged it—but so glad to have a ratio to follow. I loved sampling NZ honey on our trip last year.
thanks so much Liz! Glad to have triggered some memories. 🙂
So simple to make and with fantastic results! Honey butter on warm cornbread brings back sweet childhood memories. You are spot on, each honey has a unique taste which makes the tasting so much fun!
Thanks so much Deb! I think a honey tasting bar would make a fortune. 🙂
I love honey especially in the comb, if I can get it. Reminds me of when I was a kid and my dad had hives. I’d chew the last bit of taste out of the wax and then spit it out. We were supposed to save the wax and not throw it away … but I usually forgot. 🙂
I used to do that as a kid too Ann!! My honey had hives and chewing the comb was awesome! Thank goodness we didn’t have to save the wax. 🙂
Honey is so amazing! This is great MJ. My husband (the biologist) and I have been talking about bees a lot lately. We should all be a little concerned for the future of bees – and their wonderful honey! Lovely post!
I am very concerned about the future of honey bees. Hope we figure out how to keep from destroying them all. Thanks Tamara!
Honey is an amazing food, one we should respect. And respect on that recipe lol! That sounds so amazing on a great piece of bread or baked good. I am a buckwheat honey kinda gal but the best I had was sent to me from Hawaii, could never track the same honey down. It was incredible.
Thanks Evelyn! Oh yes, bees to demand a lot of respect and protection! Hope we don’t destroy them all. Buckwheat honey…that sounds good! I’m going to have to see if I can find some. I’d love to try it!
If I weren’t so nervous about bees, I always thought a hive in our yard would be nice! However buying honey is so much easier and these sound like superb honeys! And honey butter is always the best!
We’ve talked about having a hive because of our garden, but it’s a lot of work to keep them alive and I would feel so guilty if I lost them. So yes, buying is so much easier. 🙂
I really didn’t know that about bees… amazing! The butter sounds lovely, I think especially my son would love it, he could eat honey every day.
Bees are so amazing! I hope we can keep from killing them all. Your son and I have something in common – can’t get enough honey! 🙂