How to Substitute Honey for Sugar in Baking
Given the flavour and nutritional benefits of honey, many of us have wondered about substituting refined sugar with natural honey. While some swaps are easy – say, switching to honey in your morning cup of coffee – others, such as in baking, are more intimidating. It turns out that not only can we use honey in most baking, but that honey is both a simple and beneficial substitute.
Believe it or not, most traditional baking recipes were developed using honey as a sweetener, and were only replaced by sugar later on when it became more widely available. While sugar was known throughout Asia beginning in about 500 BEC, it wasn’t known in Europe until the 11th century when the crusaders brought it home from the Middle East. Sugar was considered a luxury and honey remained the go-to sweetener in most households. The availability and affordability of sugar increased following the colonization of the Caribbean and advancement of the refining process.
Why substitute refined sugar with natural honey?
The benefits of using honey in baking are many, but I’m going to focus on three main reasons: taste, shelf life and digestibility.
Honey is a great flavour booster. While refined sugar has a largely one-note flavour – sweet – honey contains four different sugars as well as a number of enzymes and minerals that enhance taste, resulting in a deeper, more complex flavour in baked goods. In general, light-coloured honey imparts a lighter taste while dark honey results in a more intense flavour. This enables the adventurous baker to experiment with different varieties of honey and refine recipes to their liking. Honey is also a natural preservative because it inhibits bacterial growth. Consequently, baked goods made with honey tend to have a longer shelf life. Finally, honey is more easily digested than refined sugar. Refined sugar is a disaccharide that is more difficult for some to digest and can result in the growth of undesirable bacteria in the large intestine. Honey, a monosaccharide, is easily digested in the small intestine.
There are a number of other benefits to using honey. For example, honey has a lower glycemic index (GI) than refined sugar and therefore provides a relatively longer and steadier source of energy. Honey also has a number of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants such as calcium, potassium, Vitamin C, zinc, phenolic acids, and flavonoids. I do think it’s important not to overhype the health benefits of honey, however, I think its natural benefits make honey a clear winner over sugar in the sweetener category
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How can I substitute honey for sugar?
You can directly substitute honey for sugar in a recipe if the quantity is small - in the teaspoon or tablespoon range. For larger volumes, you use less honey than sugar because honey is sweeter than sugar. The amount of honey is reduced by 25% if you measure by weight. So 100 g of sugar would be replaced by 75 g of honey. If you measure by volume, the amount of honey used would be reduced by 40%. A recipe calling for one cup of sugar would be replaced with 5/8 cup of honey. I’ve included a handy chart below that should help with these conversions.
I make some additional changes in the recipe if it calls for one cup or more of honey, because honey is a liquid sweetener rather than a dry ingredient. In recipes where honey is the only liquid ingredient you can add an additional tablespoon or two of flour. If there are other liquids beside the honey in the recipe then reduce the volume of the other liquids by 25%. I also add an extra teaspoon of baking soda for recipes where a light and fluffy texture is desired and a quarter teaspoon for baked goods that are meant to be denser. Finally, it’s a good idea to reduce the oven temperature (15C or 25F) because honey can result in a darker-coloured product if baked at higher temperatures.
So go ahead and experiment with honey in your baking! You’ll find that not only will your baking will be more flavourful, but that it will also be moister, chewier, and richer in colour. Good luck, and be sure to let us know how your honey baking turns out in the comments below!
Table 1. Here is a summary of the many conversion charts available. In general, reduce the weight by 25% or the volume by 40% when substituting honey for sugar.