Hot Pepper Honey ~ an easy recipe that infuses the hot kick of spicy peppers into sweet honey for a fabulous pairing with cheese and crackers. This spicy honey is an essential part of any cheese board or platter.
One of our favorite simple pleasures around here is a good blue cheese on a cracker topped with honey. Another favorite is goat cheese paired with hot pepper jam, also on a cracker. This Hot Pepper Honey is part of a plan to fuse these two simple pleasures into one giant uber simple pleasure: tangy blue cheese meets sweet honey with a surprise kick.
It’s sweet. It’s fiery. It’s one of those ‘where has this been all my life’ tastes. The sweet cool honey hits the front of your tongue, the heat kicks in a moment later at the back of your mouth and it’s delightful.
There is a surprising amount of heat in the final product, considering that the peppers infuse for just a brief time in the warm honey, but the sweetness of the honey tempers the heat and results in a very pleasant sensation.
Making this is just a matter of gently heating the honey with the chili peppers so their flavors can mingle. The infused honey then gets strained, bottled, and voila—you have an amazing new condiment to experiment with, or a nifty little gift. And you know you’re going to need lots of nifty little gifts pretty soon.
Cheese plates often fill in as dinner at our house, and these kinds of special extras keep them them fun and interesting.
Use it in salad dressings, on cheese, or in glazes for meats, fish or vegetables. Put some in your mint or lemon tea, especially if you’ve got a cold. Drizzle a little on fresh figs, or how about slathering it all over a hot buttered biscuit?
I highly recommend this, it’s an unexpected treat.
I’d never heard of hot pepper honey until I read about a commercially made version in Culture Magazine. I slightly adapted the basic how-to from Foodista.
Minimal Monday: Hot Pepper Honey
Ingredients
- 1 cup honey
- about 3 tsp crushed red peppers, about 5 small dried peppers
Instructions
- Put the honey and the peppers in a double boiler or a glass bowl or measuring cup over a saucepan of boiling water.
- Mix the peppers into the honey and heat for several minutes until the temp is about 150F. A thermometer isn't necessary, but you don't want the honey to get so hot that you destroy the beneficial enzymes. Turn off the heat and let the honey sit over the water and steep for about 10 minutes.
- While the honey is still warm, strain it into a clean jar or jars.
I buy my honey honey in five pounds jars from the cranberry bog. I use it everyday in one thing or another. It is so good for you and your right, Gorgonzola/Blue cheese is one of the best ways to high light good honey. The pepper honey sounds delicious!!!
such an excellent idea… I adore honey and this is just perfect… bet it would make a great addition to an icing for a cake… people would be very surprised!
This normally wouldn’t appeal to me. But, at the market the other day, they had something very similar out for sampling. I loved it! So much loved it that I made several versions of this as appetizers when I went out to Santa Barbara. It was such a surprising and delicious find.
sweet and hot- just what I like. I used to buy this sweet and spicy pickle and jalapeno jelly and they don’t have it anymore in my store and it makes me sad but I am thinking this jelly of yours makes me really happy and I need to make it now!
Very yummy sounding! I made ginger honey a while back which was a real treat but wouldn’t have thought to do it with hot pepper. I love honey with blue cheese or gorgonzola so your cracker treat looks fantastic!
This sounds so good, and so easy! I bet it would make for some amazing hot toddies too. 🙂
Great idea! I have so many chills in jars from our garden! Finally a fun use!
What a delicious-sounding snack…I’m wondering if I should try something like this for the Thanksgiving starters?
Look delicious! And such pretty pictures!
I LOVE!!!! hot pepper jelly and learned to can b/c I love it that much so I can make my own and this hot pepper honey is RIGHT up my alley. Great post, Sue!