The amazing *life changing honey
*ok, maybe not life changing but its flipping amazing...
I've recreated how I accidentally made it last time. I've changed a few little parts, to make it a little easier to get the end result. Its amazing. Looks just like honey, tastes sweet with a twang! Its yummy! Perfect in porridge, or with a pudding. I haven't brought honey in a year now, I really thought I would miss it. I quite like golden syrup but this pear syrup is my new favourite!
Ingredients:
4kg pears
1.8kg sugar
3.5 lts water
1-2 lemons
(I like to make big batches. So if you want to make a smaller batch half the above amounts.)
How to make pear honey/syrup:
Chop off the top/bottom of the pears, and peel them.
Put the water in a very large pot, with the pears, lemon juice, and skins. Bring up to the boil. Boil on a gentle boil. Until soft.
Mash up the pears, in the pot with the boiled water.
I stretch muslin over a colander or you can use a muslin bag.
Pour the liquid and pears through a muslin cloth into a large bowl or pot.
Best to leave this over night to drip through.
You can keep the liquid and mashed pears left over to make tarts (whats left in the muslin.)
Put a small china plate in the fridge, this is to test the honey later. You put it in the fridge now to insure its cold later.
Pour in the sugar, and lemon juice. Once all the sugar has evaporated/melted, bring up to a gentle boil.
Now for me to get the set right I had to boil it two times. I had jar up the honey, thinking it had set. Only for when it cooled it hadn't! So keep in mind it takes quite a while to turn from water into syrup.
I added in another half a lemon's worth of juice at this stage. So if you are really struggling to get it to change, add more lemon. A little at a time, over doing it could mess the whole thing up and end up with candy!
Keep siring it, I use a large wooden spoon. It will start to feel heavy on the spoon and leave a coating on it. It will also deepen in colour, turning much darker. That's when I know it's almost there!
When you want to test it, pour a little on the china plate.
Pop it back into the fridge, has it stayed like water or is it looking more like honey?
If it's looking like water, keep on a gentle boil and check again in 3-5mins. Keep doing this until it's looking a little like honey.
When you are ready to jar up, follow my blog for how I do it. I put the jars in the oven while am boiling the liquid.
This gave me 6 jars, of amazing pear 'honey' syrup.
It's really just like honey but with a unique twang!
Vegan and yummy!!
The first time I thought I had got it to set just right I jarred up 9 jars! So it shows you, the more you boil the less you have but it can take a lot of boiling to get it right. Have a go, it's very gratifying and tastes amazing on porridge!
Remember to tweet your photos #pearhoney
