Substituting honey for sugar
I am beginning to experiment with substituting honey in my recipes for sugar. Honey is more easily digested in your body and actually provides some vitamins and minerals (in very small quantities) in addition to all the other benefits of the natural substance.
Today I used honey in my plain white bread recipe... with equal quantities. I was only adding 2 Tablespoons so that is OK. With larger quantities there are some more rules. This is what I have found so far.
Honey can easily be substituted for sugar. Due to honey's ability to retain water, products made with honey tend to remain moister longer than similar products made with sugar or other sweeteners.
Some minor adjustments may need to be made to a recipe when substituting honey for sugar:
Use equal amounts of honey for sugar up to one cup. Over one cup,here is the formula 1 cup honey = 1 1/4 cups sugar + 1/4 cup liquid. .
Lower the baking temperature 25 degrees and watch your time carefully since products with honey brown faster.
In recipes using more than one cup honey for sugar, it may be necessary to reduce liquids by 1/4 cup per cup of honey.
In baked goods, add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of honey if baking soda is not already included in the recipe. This will reduce the acidity of the honey, as well as increase the volume of your product.
Moisten a measuring spoon or cup first with water, oil, or an egg before measuring the honey to prevent it from sticking to the measuring utensil.
Honey is heavy by weight. A 12 ounce jar equals one standard 8 ounce cup. A quart weighs 3 pounds.
This is from the kitchen if Mrs, Heyman
This batch turned out great. It seems that honey works just as good. As we are hoping to have our own honey supply someday, I am excited.
I have also been working on my own homemade yeast starter (essentially a sourdough starter-very simple also). I didn't use the homemade starter on this loaf because I didn't want to try something new with the honey on bread that.
Homemade Yeast
From the kitchen of Mrs. Heyman
I have been working on a homemade sourdough yeast starter for some time now and it is growing well. The recipe really is very simple... you almost won't believe how easy it is.
No Commercial Yeast Starter
"It may take a little time, but making a good starter is easy! It is best to use organically grown flour and non-chlorinated water because they contain no chemicals which might kill the wild yeast."
INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups bottled (non-chlorinated) water
DIRECTIONS
Combine flour and spring water in a medium bowl; stir well. Cover loosely with a cloth and let sit on a kitchen counter for 2 to 3 days, or until bubbly.
To use and feed your starter; take out the amount needed for your recipe and then replace that amount with equal parts flour and spring water. If you keep your starter at room temperature it should be fed every other day, and if refrigerated, fed weekly. If you accumulate more starter than you need, simply pour a few cups down the drain before feeding it.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/No-Commercial-Yeast-Starter/Detail.aspx
My starter has been growing now for about 2 months and I have used it for pizza dough weekly. I have tried rolls and plain bread with some good results and some not so good. It should look like the picture shortly after feeding it. The bubbles are good indicators that the yeast is present. Also, you will notice the sour smell. I am still working on the actual ratio of my sourdough starter as compared to the dried yeast that my recipes call for. It seems as though I need more of the homemade yeast to get the potency of the purchased yeast. I expected that, but am still working it out. One batch at a time.
I am excited to get this starter to the point that I am comfortable, as I have read that there are many other kinds of yeast starters out there using different fruits and such (organic and completely natural, of course) as the catalyst to start the yeast growth and can't wait to try them out with my bread.
Yeast itself is actually something that is already present in your kitchen right now... all you are doing is creating the perfect environment to grow it and collect it for your own use. As it is a living organism, it is important to continue feeding your yeast starter, or you will kill it. I don't use my starter daily and so in order to keep from dumping too much down the drain (when the jar is too full), I put it into the refrigerator and then am able to feed it weekly instead of daily. I have found that it is good to set the jar out on the counter for a couple hours to get to room temp before feeding and let it out a little while to jumpstart it a little before setting it back into the refrigerator.
If you ever pull it out and it just looks bland, no activity at all, you can give it a boost with some sugar (just a little) or a bit of dried purchased yeast. Make sure that it is growing well before you decide to set into the refrigerator. You may have to let it out a couple of days to get it back up to par.
I will try to give you updates on the substitution for purchased yeast and with my new projects in the kitchen.
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