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/

The 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?

• http://www.bakingwithhoney.com/snackingwithhoney/2012/01/smuckers-natural-peanut-butter-with-honey/
• http://www.bakingwithhoney.com/snackingwithhoney/2011/03/tiger%e2%80%99s-milk-peanut-butter-and-honey-bar/
• http://www.bakingwithhoney.com/snackingwithhoney/2010/10/easy-squeezy%e2%84%a2-the-bee%e2%80%99s-knees-squeeze-packs/

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

Wise Foods Honey BBQ potato chips are the perfect blend of sweet honey and zesty barbeque.  This flavor combination continues to be a popular choice for consumers in the potato chip aisle as the sweet and spicy combination creates an irresistible flavor temptation.

Wise Foods, located in Berwick, Pennsylvania, recently celebrated their 90th year of creating classic snacks.  They have a commitment to using the highest quality ingredients and producing quality snack foods for families.  The company also features honey imagery prominently on their packaging.

Want to see what other products contain honey?

• http://www.bakingwithhoney.com/snackingwithhoney/2012/02/kettle-brand%c2%ae-honey-dijon-potato-chips/
• http://www.bakingwithhoney.com/snackingwithhoney/2011/06/tias-sweet-baja-barbecue-torilla-chips/
• http://www.bakingwithhoney.com/snackingwithhoney/2011/01/lundberg-honey-dijon-rice-chips/

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