Batting clean-up in the formulating game, honey can be a heavy hitter for bakery teams. “The commercial baking industry has always used honey,” said Catherine Barry, director of marketing, National Honey Board (NHB), Firestone, CO, “but its popularity is booming as consumer trends align perfectly with the benefits of honey.” She spoke to Baking & Snack in an exclusive Q&A.
Baking & Snack: What are the advantages to using honey in commercially produced bakery products?
Catherine Barry: The commercial baking industry has always used honey, but its popularity is booming as consumer trends align perfectly with the benefits of honey. These benefits span from flavor to functional to marketing. Simply put, honey tastes great, delivers many functional benefits to bakery foods and appeals to consumers looking for indulgent, sweet products with clean labels and natural ingredients.
As a sweetener, honey imparts exceptional flavors in all bakery foods, from cookies and crackers to breads and rolls to bars and cereals. More importantly, it sweetens bakery foods naturally, and gives bakers a "clean label" alternative to other sweeteners.
Honey also is used in bakery foods to enhance the flavors of other ingredients. Naturally occurring organic acids in honey, such as gluconic acid, enhance the flavors of spices, fruits and nuts. When used with cinnamon, herbs, spices or other flavors, honey helps bring out those tastes and aromas.
What are its functional and operational advantages? Marketing advantages?
Because of its high fructose content, honey is sweeter than sugar, allowing bakers to use less honey than sugar to achieve the desired sweetness. When substituting honey for sugar in formulas, begin by substituting honey for up to half of the sugar called for in the formulas. Honey can be used as a complete or partial replacement for almost any sweetener. However, differences in formulas and baking environment make substitution guidelines slightly different dependent on the formula.
In bakery foods, honey performs many roles beyond sweetening bakery foods. Products that contain honey dry out more slowly and have a lesser tendency to crack. This is due to honey’s hygroscopicity. Honey also provides more uniform baking with a more evenly browned crust at lower temperatures as a result of the sweetener’s fructose content.
Honey also imparts an improved aroma at relatively small percentages (up to 6% by weight of the flour) in sweet cakes, biscuits, breads and similar products. The high acidity of honey (avg. pH 3.91) also helps inhibit mold growth in bakery foods and extend shelf life.
Honey naturally coats, binds and thickens products, improving body and mouthfeel. Because it is water soluble, honey is easily added to a variety of mixes and can be pumped or extruded in a variety of manufacturing processes.
From a marketing perspective, the name “honey” is its biggest benefit. Honey is not created from chemicals in a processing plant. Instead, it comes from Mother Nature and is produced in a beehive. Honey is the ideal sweetener to enhance the flavor profile of bakery foods striving to attract consumers looking for all-natural and pure ingredients. It offers food manufacturers the opportunity to provide a sweet product using a natural sweetener that promotes a clean label.
What are some of the challenges?
From a processing standpoint, incorporating honey into an automated manufacturing process should not pose any problems. Available in both liquid and dried forms, honey is suitable for both liquid and dry ingredient handling systems.
What role do you think honey will play in the future of baking?
From gluten-free to all-natural, honey is the ideal sweetener for the future of innovative baking products. The sweetener is aligned perfectly with consumer preferences, and will continue to grow in popularity.
Bonus Webinar – Watch now
“Honey’s forms, functionalities and marketability” — The sweeteners bakeries use have been placed under intense scrutiny by consumer watchdog groups, media thought leaders and social network trendsetters. Learn how to incorporate honey into bakery foods to drive flavor and consumer acceptance by watching this archived webinar.
FAQs
Products that contain honey dry out more slowly and have a lesser tendency to crack. This is due to honey's hygroscopicity. Honey also provides more uniform baking with a more evenly browned crust at lower temperatures as a result of the sweetener's fructose content.
What does honey do to baked goods? ›
What Does Honey do in Baking? Honey is a 'humectant'. This means that it retains moisture- great news for baking as it helps keep biscuits and cake moist. Honey compared with traditional refined sugar, also means you gain a richer colour and fuller flavour.
What honey is best for baking? ›
Buckwheat Honey
It has a bolder flavor than more lighter colored varieties, sometimes described as both nutty and slightly bitter. Its strong flavor stands up well to mixing in with other flavors in a dish, making it a great choice for cooking and baking applications.
Is it healthier to bake with honey or sugar? ›
Honey offers more health benefits than sugar.
These beneficial compounds offer lots of nutritional advantages and, in particular, they have great antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory results. Baking with honey instead of baking with sugar can help to add a little bit of benefit to your baked goods.
What is the main reason for using honey in a baking formula? ›
Formulation considerations for using honey in baked goods
Honey is more than just sugar. Not only is this ingredient up to 1.5-times sweeter than white sugar, but its unique properties can impact products by increasing moisture, extending shelf life and enhancing texture.
Does baking with honey destroy nutrients? ›
Excessive heat can have detrimental effects on the nutritional value of honey. Heating up to 37°C (98.6 F) causes loss of nearly 200 components, part of which are antibacterial. Heating up to 40°C (104 F) destroys invertase, an important enzyme.
Is it safe to put honey in the oven? ›
Make sure you always consume honey in its natural form. Cooking honey at 40 degree Celsius or more can cause negative chemical change that makes it taste bitter. Cooking destroys the potent health benefits of honey.
What is the healthiest honey to buy? ›
When it comes to choosing the healthiest honey, you should look for one that is raw. Raw honeys are not pasteurized and bypass filtration, a process that may reduce its nutrients. A great variety of raw and unfiltered honey is available on Amazon.
What is bakery grade honey? ›
Industrial honey or Baker's Honey is honey that doesn't completely meet the criteria of table honey. The hydroxymethylfurfural content (HMF) of Baker's honey is allowed to be higher than 40mg/kg, which isn't the case in other types of honey.
What is the strongest type of honey? ›
Buckwheat Honey
It has a stronger and heartier taste than lighter honey varieties, and it's also higher in antioxidants. Because of its bold flavors, buckwheat honey is best used for baking and cooking.
The glycemic index measures how quickly a carbohydrate raises blood sugar levels. Honey has a GI score of 58, and sugar has a GI value of 60. That means honey (like all carbohydrates) raises blood sugar quickly, but not quite as fast as sugar.
Can you eat too much honey? ›
The Bottom Line. Honey has been linked to health benefits like improved heart health, wound healing, and blood antioxidant status. However, consuming too much may cause adverse effects due to its high sugar and calorie content. Thus, it's best to use honey to replace other forms of sugar and enjoy it in moderation.
Is it good to take a teaspoon of honey every day? ›
Taking one spoonful of honey every day can have numerous benefits to your health. Honey has been used for its nutritional value since ancient times. It has also been found to be beneficial in the treatment of many clinical conditions. The main nutrients in honey are carbohydrates in the form of glucose and fructose.
Does honey go bad? ›
“Honey does not spoil, however for best quality, the USDA recommends storing honey for up to 12 months,” Amidor says. “After that time, it remains safe but the quality may not be as good. If the honey becomes cloudy, crystallized or solidified this is not a food safety concern.”
What happens when you add honey to hot milk? ›
Warm milk with honey is often consumed as a bedtime drink and is thought to have soothing and calming properties, which can be helpful for relaxation. In various cultures, milk, honey and spices are combined together and used to heal pain and other ailments like sore throats, coughs, and colds.
Why do we not heat honey? ›
Heating of honey is contraindicated according to Ayurveda as it causes deleterious effects. Hence, to evaluate this concept, honey has been heated beyond the permissible temperature, i.e., 140°C for 2 minutes. On heating ghee, there is formation of more peroxides.
Can you replace sugar with honey in baked goods? ›
Some honey, like acacia honey, is extra sweet, while some, like chestnut, is much less so, but the general rule to adhere to is as follows: The Rule: For every 1 cup of sugar, substitute 1/2 to 2/3 cup honey.
What effect does honey have on dough? ›
Research determined that honey at a level of as little as 4%, improved frozen dough strength, increased volume, reduced staling and produced a loaf of bread that was rated significantly better than breads without honey.
Does honey lose its benefits when cooked? ›
Heating honey to high temperatures – generally above 45-50°C – eliminates these benefits by killing the bacteria, enzymes, and antioxidants that make honey so powerful. Heating honey – whether at home in the cooking process, or by commercial producers – seems like a huge waste of an incredible natural product.
What does cooking with honey do? ›
Honey will add a note of sweetness without the drawbacks of sugar, helping to balance out more sour or bitter notes such as vinegars.
