How do I dehydrate honey?

[Seattle Food Geek]

I'm looking for a way to dehydrate (or transform) honey into a sheet with similar properties to a fruit leather. I've been able to do this with sugary sauces like cocktail sauce or plum sauce just by spreading them on parchment and putting them in the dehydrator for a few hours. However, honey doesn't seem to change much. My guess is that I need to add some type of starch to help draw out the moisture, or use a gelling agent in some way.

Ideally, the finished properties of the honey sheet are that it is stable at room temperature, not too sticky to the touch (I'm OK with coating it with a fine power to help with this) and that it will dissolve completely if stirred into hot water.

Does anyone have experience or tips for this problem?

Thanks,

Scott

[mkayahara]

Does it need to be flexible?

[Seattle Food Geek]

Good question - I left that out. Yes, it needs to be flexible, at least when it is warm. I'll need to fold it into a specific shape.

(leaving out other details so I can surprise you with a photo of the dish when it finally works)

[mkayahara]

Definitely challenging; I'd be worried about it crystallizing on you once you got enough water out. I wonder if something like an all-honey pâte de fruit (i.e., using pectin as a gelling agent) would work for you, though I realize you might end up caramelizing the honey in the process. If you poured it out onto a wide surface, you could get it to be thin. Not sure how quickly it would dissolve in hot water, though...

[natasha1270]

I have no experience in any of these modern techniques and this might be a huge stretch but I have read about honey calcium alginate wound dressings and assume you could somehow translate this into creating something edible (of course not the bandages but the idea of them: honey + alginate).

[Jose Nieves]

How long did you dehydrate the honey four and at what temp and fan speed?

[andiesenji]

Soft honey jels are made with agar agar. I don't have a recipe but this site should help with some ideas of how to start.

A Mexican candy, also made with agar agar and either honey or fruit syrup is made in sheets and actually hung to dry and the flexible sheets are cut with patterns and formed into flowers on wire "stems" so the stuff must be fairly stable.

Edited April 7, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[Kouign Aman]

The first two you mention have fruit in them, therefore structure (fiber).

I wonder if it would help to add fiber to the honey, such as the pectin suggested above or something a bit bulkier - fruit fiber or BeneFiber ?

[lstrelau]

What about Feran Adria's Texturas product that is already dehydrated honey? Not surewhat youcan do with it only read about it on the Texturas website

[Seattle Food Geek]

In my first attempt, I tried to dehydrate the honey on a sheet of acetate for 15 hours at 135F. There was not much of an apparent difference in texture. I can try going for longer, but I think we may be onto something with the fiber binding. I'll try using a small amount of pectin - hopefully the bitterness won't overwhelm the flavor too much.

[Mjx]

You might want to go with a gelling agent that gives a firmer, more flexible gel, such as konnyaku. You'd need to dissolve that in hot water, but the dilution of the honey may give you better control over the final product.

Also, do you absolutely need to start with fresh honey, or could you use honey granules dissolved in a little water, with the gelling agent added to that? This seems as though it would give an even more controllable product (and would still use pure honey, albeit in a dried form).

[andiesenji]

I get honey granules and honey powder from Barry Farm (scroll down half way on the page) to use in dry spice mixtures and tea mixtures, etc.

The honey gels made with agar agar (also with gum arabic and gum tragacanth) do not contain fruits.

I just cited that page because I thought you could get an idea of ratio volumes. How much agar agar to how much honey, etc.

There are any number of chewy candies made in the middle east, some are made with these "gum" thickeners with honey that is just briefly simmered.

Others are made with honey that has been boiled to the soft boil stage.

Honey brittles are made with honey that has been boiled to the hard crack stage.

The granulated honey products are made with honey that has been boiled, poured onto a sheet to "dry" and then crushed. It has to be kept away from any moisture or will attract it and become a gummy mess.

[mkayahara]

Just came across the recipe for spiced honey glass in Modernist Cuisine, and the margin note points out that it's hard to make honey into a glass, because of how hygroscopic fructose is, so that might explain why you've been having trouble dehydrating it. The recipe for the glass uses spray-dried honey mixed with trehalose.

[Seattle Food Geek]

Just came across the recipe for spiced honey glass in Modernist Cuisine, and the margin note points out that it's hard to make honey into a glass, because of how hygroscopic fructose is, so that might explain why you've been having trouble dehydrating it. The recipe for the glass uses spray-dried honey mixed with trehalose.

Thanks for that! I must have overlooked this recipe, but I'll check it out. Now all I need is a spray dryer... or to change my approach.

I've seen premade honey powder and honey granules. Perhaps those would be a better starting point for me.

Thanks!