We talked a beekeeper into putting a couple hives on the back part of our property this spring. It's a win:win situation: he gets to keep the honey the bees make, and we get good pollination for our gardens.
Last weekend, he gave us one of the honeycombs. He's very satisfied with their production and says "Bees happy!" So were we, once we got a taste of that wild, raw honey. After extracting and straining it three times, we wound up with about 5 cups of honey. And I knew exactly what to use it for!
Chocolate Honeycake
(Recipe from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, by Mollie Katzen)
Butter 8"x8" pan. Preheat oven to 350*
Ingredients:
6 Tbl butter
1 oz (1 square) unsweetened baking chocolate
1 tsp vanilla .
3/4 cups honey
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
Dash salt
Melt the butter and chocolate in double boiler OR in the microwave (on defrost for about 4-5 minutes, check frequently). Allow to cool to room temperature. Add vanilla to this mixture.
Whip the honey on high speed for 5 minutes (this is where a stand mixer comes in handy!).
Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each.
Add butter/chocolate mixture, blend well.
Add dry ingredients, mix just until blended.
Pour into prepared pan; bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes.
Optional: drizzle with a light glaze made with powdered sugar, a little bit of water, and about 1 tsp honey.
Try to let it cool at least a little bit before you dig in. Goes really well with ice cream.
Enjoy!!
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Comments
That's wonderful that you have a bee hive on the property. With bees in so much trouble, it is a good deed for all of us when someone makes rooms for a colony.
Bee guy says bees are so happy he may bring over a 3rd hive. I think it's way cool, although I won't get anywhere near them.
I also got a Mason Bee house--they're native to North America, don't interbreed with Africanized bees, aren't susceptible to the mites or disease or whatever that honey bees are having trouble with, are "solitary" bees (no hive), don't need "keeping," don't swarm, and don't sting. They also don't produce honey, darnit, but you can't have everything. I want to get a nice little colony going; then if bee guy ever takes his hives away or they get decimated by whatever it is that's killing all the bees, we'll still have a good supply of pollinators.
(Dog Monster likes the wild honey too. I didn't mean to teach her that.)
Second non sequitur: you know they don't sell those hedgehogs anymore? I think it's because they're insufficiently annoying. All I have left of one is its pelt, and as soon as that gets torn to pieces, no more hedgehogs for us.
I have discovered that back yard honey is also just absolutely amazing when stirred into Fage. To die for! We still have about 1/2 quart left and we're hoarding it. :)