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Using honey to extend shelf life

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

Honey’s use in the baking and snack industry extends well beyond sweetening, and includes increasing the shelf life of bakery foods through the three main factors that help maintain crumb softness: preventing moisture transfer, delaying starch recrystallization, and hydrolyzing starch. Liquid honey is hygroscopic and enables products to maintain their moisture content far longer than products that use dry sweeteners. Honey, by design, does not give up its water easily. With an average water activity of 0.55, honey acts as a natural humectant.

Other ingredients that prevent moisture transfer are those that bind water, including starches, fibers, or maltodextrins. However, the amylase present in honey promotes crumb softness by effectively hydrolyzing starch, thereby contributing to moisture retention. Honey’s fructose content also holds in a bakery food’s moisture, thus reducing dry products, and the ingredient’s high acidity (average pH 3.91) inhibits mold growth.

Do you make snack foods made with honey? Get them listed here by emailing info@bakingwithhoney.com

 

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Honey FAQ: What considerations do I need to make when replacing my current sweetener with honey?

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

More and more bakers are using honey in their bakery food formulas because of the ingredient’s many benefits, which 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.

Honey’s popularity in the industry was recently exhibited in a wholesale bakery usage survey conducted by the National Honey Board, which asked bakers why they use honey.

  • Flavor/sweetening (48%)
  • All natural sweetener (29%)
  • Consumer appeal (29%)
  • Labeling, market segmentation requirement (19%)
  • Humectancy/moisture retention (16%)

For bakers looking to replace their existing sweetener with honey, there are a few processing considerations. Honey’s sugars are precursors to the Maillard reaction, which means that they provide natural color and browning to the finished product. As a result, bakers should reduce the oven temperature by up to 25°F to prevent over-browning. When using honey, bakers also often have to reduce the liquid to accommodate for honey’s average moisture content of about 17%.

For more information on using honey, go to http://www.bakingwithhoney.com/work-bench/

 

 

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Peanut Butter & Co. The Bee’s Knees

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

Peanut Butter Co the Bees Knees 182x300 Peanut Butter & Co. The Bee’s KneesThe Bee’s Knees is all-natural peanut butter that is blended with honey and is guaranteed to become a favorite addition to everyday snacking.  The Bee’s Knees is gluten-free, contains no cholesterol, trans fats or hydrogenated oils and is certified kosher.

Lee Zalben is the founder and president of Peanut Butter & Co.  Lee’s dream of opening a peanut butter sandwich shop became a reality on December 21, 1998.  Almost instantly customers were clamoring to take the peanut butter home.  Today Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butter is sold in 10 flavors in over 10,000 stores around the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and Hong Kong.

Want to see what other products contain honey?

Do you make snack foods made with honey? Get them listed here by emailing info@bakingwithhoney.com

 

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