Easy tutorial for infusing your own honey at home in two different ways.
Honey is a delicious and beneficial natural sweetener that can be added to enhance a wide variety of foods and dishes. It's mild flavor profile can also easily take on the delightful and welcome flavor of most herbs, spices, flowers, and fruit peels through the process of infusion. Infused honey also makes a great homemade gift for the friends and families in your life.
This Instructable will detail two ways to infuse your honey. The first technique is a "fast" infusion method utilizing heat. The second method is a "slow" infusion that uses time instead of heat. Each has it's own benefits, use whichever you feel more comfortable with. No matter which method you use, steps 1-5 are the same and should be followed for both fast and slow methods.
Step 1: Ingredients & Materials
You’ll need the following:
- Honey
- Herbs and Spices to Flavor*
- Tea Bags
- Honey Dipper**
- Double Boiler
- Glass Jars with Lids
- Zester/Grater
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- Measuring Cups
*NOTE: You can choose any herbs and spices that you’d like to infuse your honey with. For this Instructable I infused three different honey batches with Vanilla & Orange, Rosemary, and Hot Chili. Other combinations could include: Green Tea, Thyme, Lemon Zest, Sage, Allspice, Mint, Ginger, or any combination of the above. As always, get created. I would avoid fruit and stick to fruit zest if possible.
**OPTIONAL
Step 2: Sterilize Your Jars
Fill a large pot with water. Place your jars and their lids inside the pot, submerging them in the water. Bring to a boil and continue to boil for 10 minutes. This will clean and sterilize your jars before you put your infused honey in them, reducing the risk of bacteria. Allow your jars to cool while you start to infuse your honey.
Step 3: Wash
Wash any herbs or fruit you may be using under a steady stream of cold water. Allow your washed items to dry. This will prevent bacteria from getting into your new batch of honey. You'll also want to make sure that your herbs and/or fruit are completely dry
before adding them to the honey, you don't want any water in your finished honey.
Step 4: Prepare & Chop
After your herbs or fruit have dried you can prepare them for infusion. I like to chop herbs and/or muddle my spices to release more of the aromatic flavors. You can use whole herb leaves, but you will need more of them for the infusion.
You can adapt the strength of the flavor in your infusion to your own personal preference. Add more spices/herbs for a stronger flavor and less of each for a milder flavor. Get creative! I used the following amounts for my infusions:
Vanilla & Orange Honey:
- 1/2 Cup of Grade A Honey
- Zest from 1/2 of a Large Organic Navel Orange
- 1/2 Chopped Vanilla Bean
Rosemary Honey:
- 1/2 Cup of Grade A Honey
- 2 Rosemary Sprigs Chopped (each sprig was roughly 4")
Hot Pepper Honey:
- 1/2 Cup of Grade A Honey
- 1 Thai Chili Chopped (can be substituted with other peppers)
Step 5: Tea Bags
You can steep your honey with loose herbs and spices but then you will have to strain your honey mixture at the end, or be okay with solids in your finished product. Instead, I prefer to place all of my herbs and spices for the infusion in a loose leaf tea bag. This will allow for the honey to soak in the aromatic flavors you've chosen, but also allow for easy removal when you are done.
For this step, place your prepared (chopped, muddled, or zested) herbs and spices in an empty loose leaf tea bag and twist the top to help the bag remained closed.
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