This Thanksgiving, why not go old-school with a healthy dose of honey added to your traditional recipes? European colonists brought honeybees to North America in 1622, so you can be sure that cooking with honey from your local beekeeper is the original Patriot Act.

Honey Pumpkin Pie

CRANBERRY SAUCE

Burnt Honey Cranberry Sauce | Orange Cinnamon Honey Cranberries | Honey Mustard Cranberry Sauce

TURKEY

Whiskey Honey-Glazed Turkey | Soy & Honey Glazed Turkey  | Turkey Roasted in Honey

BRUSSEL SPROUTS

Honey Balsamic Roasted Sprouts | Brussels with Sriracha, Honey & Lime | Roasted Sprouts with Honey & Pecan

PIES

Ginger-Honey Pumpkin Pie | Honey Pecan Pie with Bourbon Cream | Honey Pecan Pumpkin Pie

There on p167 is a simple recipe for the most grown-up ambrosia your lips shall encounter — Fig and Honey Jam with Bay. I’m sure it’s divine with all sorts of bourgeois goodies like foie gras but I eat it straight out of the jar after a long sweaty day slinging websites.

Fig & Honey Jam with Bay

• 2 1/4 lbs figs
• 3  1/4 cups sugar
• 3 1/2 oz honey (I like a darker summer honey.)
• 6 bay leaves
• Juice of 1 small lemon

Almond & Honey-Butter Cookies

Beautiful thumbprint cookies that highlight the perfect marriage of almonds and honey. Definitely a “save the honeybee” cookie as almonds are utterly dependent on pollination by honeybees.

http://desertculinary.blogspot.com/2009/04/almond-and-honey-butter-cookies.html

by Culinary in the Country

Sunflower Honey Chocolate Truffles

Sumptuous truffles made with neighborhood honey by Sweet Hive Chicago. Use a distinctive honey to highlight the flavor even more.
http://sweethivechicago.com/2010/12/13/honey-for-the-holidays-chocolate-truffles/

by Bob Vivant

Sesame Honey Cookies

Nutty like halva but soft like a cookie, these anchor a cookie plate on the savory end of sweet.

http://www.nanokatz.com/2010/09/04/sesame-honey-cookies-2/

Photo by Nano Katz

Melomakarona

A slightly soft but spicy Greek cookie dipped in honey.

http://ellysaysopa.com/2007/12/15/melomakarona/

Photo by Elly

This weekend, my friend Alexis converted a cup of our honey into this tasty cake, every bit as sumptuous as it looks. Paired with mimosas on her back porch, it was the icing on a perfect late summer weekend.

Get the recipe: Nigella Lawson’s Honey Bee Cake

Minimalist decadence.

I happen to have a stash of floral spring honey from my Albuquerque neighborhood and will conduct rigorous recipe testing this weekend. With solely your well-being in mind, of course.

Honey Lemon Pots De Crème

Serves 6

1 1/2 cups (375ml) heavy cream
6 large egg yolks
1/3 cup honey
zest and juice of 2-3 lemons (you’ll need 1/4 cup or 60ml of juice)
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 325Fº and position a rack in the center. Place your ramekins in a heavy deep pan and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a simmer. Turn the heat off but keep the cream warm.
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and honey for a couple of minutes. Add the lemon juice and salt and whisk until smooth. Slowly pour the heavy cream over the egg yolk mixture, whisking well. Let stand for a couple of minutes to let any foam rise to the top, skim it off and divide the mixture among your ramekins. Pour hot water inside the pan, making sure the water comes at least halfway up the sides of your dishes. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

Recipe from Tartelette

But here I am trying again with mead only this time with some major tutelage. Elliot’s the brewmaster here and I’m just a helping hand who happens to have copious amounts of honey to spare.

We made a standard mead using champagne yeast and 1 gallon of honey for a 5 gallon batch. The local brew store recommended a few additions such as irish moss for clarity and a wee bit of tannin for balance.

Apparently drinking fermented beverages such as this lovely hefeweizen from Albuquerque’s fabulous Marble Brewery while brewing a new batch optimizes success for the fermentation to come.

For complexity, we added a dozen sliced apricots to the mix. As you can see, this created a minor disaster when it came time to stuff pasteurized apricots through a tiny hole in the 5 gallon bottle. It’s not hard to imagine feet, floor, bottle covered in sticky orange baby food.

After about 2 hours of boiling and prep, the house smelled like a very floral honey and the mixture was chillin’ in the bottle (I think it’s called a carboy).

And now we wait… 6 months, maybe 9. If all goes well, and Elliot’s magic overcomes my bad brewing mojo, we’ll have mead by Christmas.

Brewmaster’s Update:

Brewmaster Elliot sends a few photos of the mead-in-progress. At the left is the slightly cooled mead into which he’s pouring a packet of champagne yeast. At right is the mead this morning with fermentation clearly underway.

Mead Recipes:

• Sunset Magazine makes mead
• Epicurious’ basic mead recipe
• Chemical-free mead
• Joe Mattioli’s Ancient Orange Mead

The Menu

• Cambozola with golden spring honey and cranberry pecan bread
• Strawberries dipped in honey
• Red Chile Honey Glazed Bacon
• Honey Chipotle Grilled Chicken Thighs
• Corn Quinoa with Mesquite Honey
• Honey Roasted Apricots with Greek Yogurt, Pistachios and Lavender Blossoms (from Seasonal Fruit Desserts)

The finished tart with our backyard honey

Bakers have been known to be quite snobbish about their almond tarts. When people ask if that’s almond paste in his tart, my favorite French chef in Albuquerque laments in a thick accent, “It’s not almond paste! It’s almond cream!” He’s genuinely hurt.

So for Bruno, we have a tart with bona fide almond cream, but this one is sweetened with honey rather than sugar making it even more lovely and floral and local.

Honey Almond Tart with Apricots

• Recipe inspired by Tartelette
• Makes one 8-inch-diameter or rectangular tart

The key to this recipe is the post-bake drizzle with honey. Make sure the honey used at this final step is a high quality floral honey, preferably one purchased at your local farmer’s market.

Crust

1 batch of flaky tart dough (it’s so easy to make in the food processor! Thank you, Jacques and Julia.)

Fruit

6-8 apricots, washed, pitted and quartered

Honey-Almond Cream

1 stick  butter, softened
1/3 cup spring honey (lavender honey would be sublime here!)
1 cup ground almond meal
2 eggs
1 TB heavy cream

Instructions

1. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface, about 2” larger than the circumference of the tart pan. Fold over the rolling pin and place in the tart pan, gently fitting the pastry up the sides. Trim any excess pastry from the top.
2. Refrigerate the tart pan with pastry for 20-30 minutes before baking in the center of the oven. This step ensures the butter is cold when baked, helping to create a flaky crust.
3. Prebake the tart with pie weights and parchment paper or foil for about 12-15 minutes in a 375F oven until the crust is set and before it becomes golden.
4. While the tart is chilling and baking, blend the butter, honey, ground almonds, and the eggs in a food processor or large bowl and process until smooth and creamy. Add the cream and stir by hand.
5. Pour the cream into the pre-baked tart crust. Arrange the apricots quarters at top of the cream.
6. Turn the oven down to 350F. Bake the tart 25-30 minutes or until the almond cream is puffed up around the apricots and has turned a warm light golden color.
7. Drizzle the tart with a bit of extra honey if desired when still warm.

A recipe by CHOW

If you’re saving any dark aster or buckwheat honey from last year’s precious stash, this is it – A triumphant final fling to share with good friends. And don’t forget to toast the honey goddess for more good luck this season.

Panna Cotta with Bitter Honey

Recipe by Aida Mollenkamp on CHOW

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large pinch (about 1/4 teaspoon) saffron threads
• 2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup bitter honey (I’d recommend aster honey or buckwheat honey)
• 8 dried figs (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Combine cream, milk, and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. When it simmers, add saffron, and let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and set aside to steep for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatin over water and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk together gelatin and cream mixture until thoroughly incorporated. Fill four ramekins or small dishes with about 1/2 cup of the base. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until mixture is set, about 4 hours or overnight.
3. To serve, dip the bottoms of the ramekins or small dishes in hot water. Run a knife around the perimeter of the panna cotta, cover with a serving plate, and flip to unmold the panna cotta. Drizzle each panna cotta with 1 tablespoon of bitter honey, and, if using, garnish with a couple of dried figs.

The Business, A Cocktail

“The Business,” a honey cocktail

Recipe inspired by: London’s Milk & Honey Cocktail Bar

• 1 part honey
• 1 part tonic water
• 1.5 parts gin
• .5 parts lime
• Some lime zest

Shake and pour over ice.