Crystallized Honey–it’s good stuff, a spoonful of that is better than candy! Although a spoonful of “set honey” (or crystallized honey) melts easily enough in a cup of hot tea, having your honey back in liquid form is better for baking and other purposes.
Honey crystallizes when it gets cold, with honey created from different herbs and flowers changing to solid form at different temperatures…so I can’t give you a set degree on the thermometer where you can expect this change from liquid to solid to occur. It’s generally around the 70 degree mark. Just know that your honey is healthy, safe, and will last for years no matter what form it takes.
In this video, I teach you how to re-liquefy your honey!
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Gah! No way! I am doing this today! Thank you!
I know of another way in a water bath, which is also effective 🙂
Yes! BUT…it requires a pot of clean, boiling water (which I might have if I was doing our shrink-wrap canning labels, or a double boiler). It’s less of a walk-away process and it takes more energy to do it that way if you aren’t just re-purposing water. I’ve done that before myself, though!
Don’t know how often you do this, but your honey was not completely uncrystallized and will crystallize faster the next time around. Also at 110-115 degrees, you are losing the beneficial properties of the honey. You might want to try 105 degrees and a longer time. Also, another great way to uncrystallize honey is in a crock pot that has a warm setting, because this is just about the right temp and you don’t lose the beneficial properties of the honey.
It was pretty close, but it’s best to crystallize in smaller batches…if you can. That jar was so hard I could barely scoop any out and I knew I’d be using it within the next week (baking). I’m not certain about it crystallizing again faster. I can’t say that I’ve found that to be a factor, except that you do have to note the temperature of storage. If you keep it 70 degrees or warmer, I’m not sure you’d find a difference.
Why should you liquefy the honey? I’ve heard that the honey shouldn’t be melt back once it crystallizes – it ruins the structure and affects the taste.
Part of the reason I prefer to use my dehydrator to liquefy honey is because of the low heat–the structure of the honey is fine and it is still considered a “raw” food after the dehydrator. As for the taste? Well, perhaps you should give it a try and see what you think, but I’ve never heard that before–nor do I find that to be true myself. In fact, I use honey in a lot of baking–which is at a much higher heat than the dehydrator would ever get and I’ve never noticed an “off” flavor from baking with it. I like to de-crystalize it for ease of use in baking, personally, and although I don’t mind a chunk of set honey in my tea, it’s much nicer to offer liquid honey to a guest.
i read today, honey doesn’t chrystalize from being cold. if you have more than you can use, it is even better to keep in the freezer or refrigerator. chrystalization occors when particals in the honey start the chrystalization process.