Making Chocolate Infused Honey
Honey infused with chocolate is easy to do and very delicious. You can choose to do this with or without a hit of spiciness, The addition of hot chili spice to the honey wakes up your taste buds to the rich deep taste of chocolate, but you can leave it out if that is not your preference.
Chocolate Infused Honey
Inspired by Mexican Hot Chocolate, this chocolate infused honey has a bit of sweet heat with hot honey, and a little hint of hot bite from the addition of cayenne. If you don’t want the heat, use straight up honey and don’t add the cayenne powder. It will still be amazing chocolate brown goodness.
This recipe is inspired by spicy hot chocolate from Mexico which has deep roots tracing back to the ancient civilizations of the Mayans and Aztecs.
Ingredients
12 fluid ounces honey
3 fluid ounces hot honey, optional (If you don’t want heat, just use a 1 pound jar of regular honey)
2 2/3 tablespoons dutch process cocoa powder
33 1/3 grams dark chocolate, grated (see note)
1/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder, optional
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cocoa nibs, optional (see note with step 7)
Directions
- Prep a double boiler over medium low heat.
- Bring the double boiler to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, and add the honey to the top pot. Allow it to warm, stirring gently every now and again.
- Add two tablespoons of dark cocoa powder, a bit at a time. Stirring gently until incorporated to avoid having the powder go everywhere.
- Once it is incorporated, stir in the grated dark chocolate and the spices. Mix until fully incorporated.
- Take the mixture off of the heat and stir in the vanilla extract – mix until it is fully incorporated.
- Pour into a clean 1-pound honey jar and allow to cool completely
- For an added touch, add the cocoa nibs to the jar before pouring over the chocolate infused honey. The heat will bloom the nibs and they will add additional chocolate notes to the honey for as long as it is in storage.
Notes
Notes: Use a light, sweet, floral spring honey or even a dark fall honey with chocolaty notes to begin with.
I am a fan of Ghiradelli Chocolate for baking. I love Hersheys, but when it comes to intense dark chocolate flavor, Ghiradelli is the way to go.
Dutch Process Cocoa; I used Ghiradelli 100% Cocoa Dutch Process
Dark Chocolate: I would recommend for the dark chocolate, use a bar with at least 70% cocoa. Ghiradelli intense dark 72% Cacoa is a great choice. It requires 1/3rd of a bar for this recipe.
For a deeper chocolate profile add more chocolate, but use caution as too much result in a grainy, stiff texture.
Hot Honey: A common brand found in supermarkets is Mike’s Hot Honey. Using both hot honey and cayenne results in a sweet heat (hot honey) and a spicy kick (cayenne). The amounts in this recipe are subtle enough to complement the chocolate while allowing the honey flavor to still come through. If you want more or less punch, you can tweak the amounts by scaling up or down these ingredients.
Tip: If you want to taste it, spoon some out of the double boiler into a shallow bowl. The glass of the bowl will cool it down enough for you to taste.
Using cocoa nibs is a nod to the pixie recipe below which inspired this post. It is total overkill, but if you want to go the full path, you can source cocoa nibs on Amazon and add them to the jar as directed. I have to admit, I have never used them. I would imagine that as they steep in the honey, they will soften, and it will provide a small bit of bitter chocolate taste as you bite into them when scraping the jar. They are quite bitter when eating right out of the package, but likely will do a good job infusing the honey – which makes this a palatable suggestion.
Inspiration – https://www.pixiespocket.com/2014/08/recipe-box-spicy-cocoa-honey.html
