This honey topping is easy to make, and can be kept in the refrigerator for quite some time – in theory. I won’t say it lasts a long time because it is usually eaten up within the week around our place.

Why Make Honey Topping?

This topping is tasty over poached fruit, like pears. It works really well to jazz up a One Minute Mesquite Cake (recipe – here), or you can top your ice cream with it – like a butterscotch topping only without dyes or additives.

Ice Cream Topping Because …

… being in a lasting relationship involves compromise. One issue we face is the ice cream flavor (the rare times we do buy ice cream). Rather than switch between chocolate and vanilla and argue over who picked last time, we buy basic vanilla and “doctor” it with home made toppings, nuts, and other tasty treats. (Don’t suggest Neapolitan – we both hate the strawberry.)

Enrich your Topping

You could just use plain honey to top your ice cream, but by making this topping you enrich it with the smooth taste of butter. Sure it adds calories, but you aren’t eating the whole batch at once! This is a treat to savor.

This doesn’t have to be an ice cream topping. This honey topping is just great over morning yogurt and granola, or drizzled over sliced canned fruit as a dessert. You could use it instead of plain honey on pancakes or waffles, and it’s also quite fine in a mesquite atole – a drink we make in the cooler months of winter (post to come).

Cooking Starch Selection

Starch helps thicken and stabilize the topping so the butter stays blended with the honey. I list cornstarch here, because that’s the way I learned to make it. If you hunt around, there are many other cooking starches out there, from a wide variety of plants – including arrowroot, tapioca, potato, rice, sweet potato, sago, mung bean, and Japanese kuzu root.

If you do use one of these other starches to make this – please share your results with us! Feel free comment below, or leave a note on our Facebook page, or shoot us an email to our newsletter address. You are signed up for our newsletter aren’t you?

Honey Topping

4 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons cornstarch or alternative
1 cup honey

Melt butter over a low heat.
Sprinkle in cooking starch and stir in.
While stirring, add honey and cook until the mixture boils.
Remove from heat.
Let this COOL before you lick the spoon! (The sad voice of experience speaking.)

Science Nerd Shares:

This cooks up quickly. Honey contains fructose, which caramelizes at lower temperatures than glucose. The temperature at which caramelization begins varies, depending on the composition of the honey, which is based on what the bees have foraged.  It can start as low as 150 °F (about 70 °C).

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