The Hurdle of Honey Bee
Dear Tamar:
I always want to use honey instead of white or even brown or raw sugar. (I always want to ignore recipes, but we are discussing baking.) I usually just do it anyways, to mixed results and surly looks from husband. My question is: can you condone this careless flagrant honey use? Should I do more research? Can you tell me how I should or should not substitute?
Dear Honey Bee,
I tried to answer this letter as if you were an anonymous stranger. But you’re not. I know you. Moreover, I know about your relationship to baking—a relationship characterized by suspicion that verges on the superstitious.
We’ve both always resented baking. I’ve resented that you can’t taste as you go, finding your way toward a finished result. I’ve long repeated the old chestnut that baking is chemistry. (I just came clean about my relationship to chemistry.) In light of our advanced ages, however, and my realization that this discomfort is one we share, I’m reconsidering my objections.
There are plenty of savory dishes one can’t taste along the way. Baking is chemistry. But all cooking is chemistry. I’ve arrived at a conclusion that is painfully obvious and simple. We’ve both spent a lot of years not-learning-how-to-bake.
Do you remember when you started making pasta? I remember a long period during which you only made pasta. There were mistakes—there always are. We were too young and too hungry to notice. Eventually, you arrived at a place where, in the absence of parsley, you would use radish tops; in the absence of broth, clam-steaming water. The shape of noodle stopped mattering. As did the size of the pot. Now, you could make good pasta in a teacup over a lighted match.
Here is what we both would have learned if we’d spent as much time baking and tinkering with our baking as we’ve spent making pasta and drinking wine.
-Honey is 20%-40% fructose. It’s much sweeter than sugar. Cut any sugar amount by half to make an equivalent substitution.
-Honey is 15%-18% water. The rule I’ve read is to decrease a recipe’s other liquids by 1/4 cup per cup of honey used. Which liquids to decrease? Safest to mix them all, subtract 1/4, and feed it to the chickens (I know you don’t have chickens) or the compost.
-Honey is acidic. Its pH is 3.2-4.5. Sugar’s pH is neutral. To neutralize the acidity of honey—which you should, for both flavor and rise—add 1/2 tsp baking soda, which is alkaline, per cup of honey.
-Honey caramelizes more quickly than sugar. If you’re substituting honey, lower the baking temperature by 25 degrees to guard against premature browning. Bake whatever it is for longer to compensate for the lower temperature.
-Sugar crystals slice through and make little air pockets in butter during creaming. This helps the resulting baked goods rise. Honey doesn’t. In any recipe where sugar and butter are creamed, stick with sugar, or expect a flatter result.
-Sugar is hygroscopic. It retains moisture. Honey is even more hygroscopic. Sugar keeps baked goods moist, and honey keeps them even moister. This is great for chewy things, but not for crisp things. If you’re baking something you want crisp, surrender and use sugar.
Dear friend, the alternative to following my advice is to keep doing what you’re doing now. In another forty years, you’ll have worked out the kinks. But if you wanted to figure it all out on your own, we wouldn’t be friends to begin with. No one would. I hope by this research, I’ve held up my end of the hive.
What is the answer?
I do think