Hey folks! After extracting some leftover goldenrod honey from my beehive a few weeks ago, what I found was that I had some honey that was beginning to crystallize. Crystallization is a natural process that happens to honey as it dries. If you wait long enough, any jar or bottle of honey will eventually begin to crystallize. Raw honey, however, will crystallize faster than store bought honey because raw honey isn’t pasteurized. Goldenrod honey has an even higher chance of crystallizing because it has a higher sugar content than most other types of honey. It’s also what makes it such a great tasting honey.
So I did a little digging, and it seems what most people do with honey that is beginning to crystallize is they make creamed honey. Creamed honey, also called whipped honey, is a honey that has deliberately gone through the crystallization process. The result is a slightly granulated honey that spreads beautifully and is generally less messy than liquid honey. There’s no difference in taste or quality. It’s just a little easier to use and is considered a premium product.
“Creamed honey, also called whipped honey, is a honey that has deliberately gone through the crystallization process…and is considered a premium product.”
How to make creamed honey
Now, most beekeepers on the internet and YouTube will tell you that in order to make creamed honey you have to mix an already creamed honey from a brand you like, called “seed honey,” into your honey. This sets off a chain reaction where the “seed honey” crystals will replicate, resulting in new creamed honey of a similar texture to the store-bought one. Failure to do so, according to the internet, will likely result in your death from cutting your tongue on sharp honey crystals. I’m just kidding, but really they’re a little obnoxious about the texture.
Anyway, I found a great post by a woman named Tamara Novakovic that led me to believe that you can make creamed honey at home, with nothing but honey and a mixer. You can view her article here: How to Make Creamed Honey at Home. So, I decided to give it a try, and not only did it NOT involve buying someone else’s honey, it was ridiculously easy to do, and the product was amazing. No rough texture at all. More on that later. It just makes sense too. Why would they call it whipped honey if the process was not to whip it?
So what do you need? All you really need is raw honey and a stand blender. I suppose you could use a hand mixer if you don’t own a stand mixer, but you’ll be mixing for about 20 minutes, so a stand mixer just seems like the obvious choice. You’ll want to use raw honey because normal, store-bought honey has typically been pasteurized to prevent crystals from forming, and it may be more difficult to work with.
“All you really need is raw honey and a stand blender.”
Ideally, your honey is already starting to crystallize like the jar in the picture above, but even if it’s not, you should still be able to get it to cream, although you may have to mix it longer than honey that is already forming crystals.
To get started I dumped the jar of honey in my stand mixer. I scraped the bottom to get as much of the crystallized honey out as I could. Then it was just a matter of mixing it. The article I read suggested 20 minutes, so I just set a timer and let it run on low speed while I did the dishes.
By the time 20 minutes was up, the honey had lightened to a nice light beige color, and I could see small granules of crystallized honey consistently throughout.
All I had to do from there was put it in a fresh, clean jar. The full crystallization process can take a week or two to complete. Temps lower than 50° F can help speed up the process, so I put the jar in the fridge for a week because, well, I’m the impatient type. Do not put it in the freezer though. Some people say that it actually slows the process if you freeze it.
“The full crystallization process can take a week or two to complete. Temps lower than 50° F can help speed up the process…”
After a week, the creamed honey firmed up as more and more crystals formed. The result was this beautiful jar of creamed honey. Not gritty at all and absolutely delicious!
Now, I’m no scientist, and I admittedly have zero scientific basis for this, but I think the reason this works is that mixing the honey for a significant amount of time introduces quite a bit of air into the honey allowing some extra water to evaporate. Since crystallization occurs as the water content is reduced, it just makes sense to me that this results in creamed honey. And I imagine the reason you don’t get those gritty, rough granules is because mixing introduces tiny little microscopic pockets of air into the honey, so the crystals that form are only able to reach a certain size.
I’ve seen a few people post that whipping honey is a bad idea because it introduces air, and thus bacteria, into the honey, which according to them will cause the honey to go bad. What I don’t see are the letters PhD after their names though or any evidence that this actually happens. Honey is a very low-risk food, in all its forms. Ask your health department. I found no indication that there was any increased risk, so without evidence, I’m going to chalk that up to just their opinion. My opinion is that they’re blowing smoke, and the reason I think that is because honey is known to have antimicrobial properties, is generally a high acid food, and the low water content actually helps prevents bacteria from forming, and there are scientific studies to that effect. What you do is up to you in the end, but for me, I really like this process.
