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HELP! Creamed honey advise.

14K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  Vance G 
#1 ·
I am in the process of making some cinnamon creamed honey. The 2 gallons of honey that I planned on using had started to crystallize so I put it into a couple half gallon glass jars and put it into a water bath caner yesterday. Well I had the temp around 145 for about 3-4 hours and still had crystals in it so I left it in the water bath with the flame off and went to bed. I was wandering what is the best way to keep the enzymes and all the goodness in the honey from not dyeing but decrystallize it at the same time. This morning I looked at it and there was still small crystals in the honey on the bottom, not much but alittle. Will this hurt the creaminess of the honey when it creams. I thought about running it throw a 200 micron filter after I mix the cinnamon into it just before I add the seed.

A little about the honey:

I bought it from a beekeeper in AZ in Feb. and it's alfalfa honey with a little mesquite mixed in.

My plan to cream it is:

I have a 1/3 cup cinnamon mixed into a couple of cups of honey that is sitting in the water bath right now.
Next I plan to mix it into a half gallon of honey and run it throw a 200 micron filter into a 5 gallon bucket that has a honey gate in it.
Then I planned on running a total of 1.5 gallons of honey throw the filter and mix it altogether.
After it s cooled down to 75degrees I planned to mix in a 12 ounce tub of spun honey as the seed and let it sit over night and bottle it the next day in 9 ounce hex jars.

The extra half gallon of honey that I have I planned to put into 1 pound muth jars with cinnamon sticks and vanilla beans. I planned on putting one stick in a jar, is this right?

Please tell me if this is right or wrong.

Thank you for your help.
 
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#2 ·
I haven't made a lot of creamed honey, but I have made some. So take everything I say with a grain, but it worked for me.
I would grind the crystals that you have in the bath to make them smaller. The texture of your finished honey should be similar to the texture of your seed honey. The larger crystals will also be seed honey.
After mixing in my seed honey, I did not wait a day to bottle it. I poured it in to jars and left in the door of my refrigerator and other locations in the fridge that met the temp requirements I needed. It started to set up pretty quickly, I was surprised. The temp of the fridge being lower than the temp you are leaving it in overnight may make a difference. I'm not sure why you are leaving it overnight.
After about 4 days it was completely set and I moved the jars to the back of my pantry for storage as well as hiding the jars from my family. I made the honey at least 3 months ago and it is a perfect texture when I open a new jar.
I did not add any flavorings etc to my batch, but I would make sure the cinnamon is mixed completely into the smaller batch before adding it to the main tub.
Good luck!!
 
#4 · (Edited)
This is what I've done so far. I waited till the honey got down to the upper 80's and put almost two 12 ounce tubs of spun honey into the cinnamon honey. Then I poured it into 24 nine ounce jars and the two tubs I used for seed and set them outside to cool and set up. I'll keep you up to date on how it turns out.

On a side note my wife smeared some on a raw walnut and her face lit up when she tasted the cinnamon in the honey. So I filled up a 12 ounce hex jar with walnuts and the cinnamon honey before I put the seed into it. Looks really cool.

The other half gallon of honey was used to fill 5 one pound muth jars that I put a whole cinnamon stick into. Looks really cool also.
 
#7 ·
I think the process you describe is too complicated. I heat it, add the seed, add the cinnamon, which as Vance says is a little too potent, stir it with an electric mixer and bottle it that same day. We make 30 lb batches at a time and use 1/3 cup of cinnamon to our 30 lb batch. We use a 10% seed ratio. We use the deli containers you get from Sams CLub to "bottle" it and sell it in 8OZ size for 5.50 each. The deli containers are about 16 cents each.
 
#8 · (Edited)
I just packed more creamed/spun/small crystal honey and with the cinnamon I used from Sams which probably hasn't seen a tree for several years, It worked out to 1tsp to a pound. Bear in mind quality and strength of spices varies hugely! Start small quantity and work up. It is good practice to keep an INDEX jar to match flavor when building future batches.
 
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