What to do with Crystallized Honey

Crystallized honey is perfectly good honey, just difficult to get out of the bottle.  One way that people deal with this mess is to put the honey bottle in the microwave and heat it up.  I would like to tell you all not to do this.  You will change the properties of the honey by boiling it.  Also, if your honey is in a plastic bottle, you might notice that the shape of the bottle changes a bit when you microwave your honey, and that probably means your honey is no longer pure honey. 

It is not harmful to you to eat honey that has crystallized and you can eat it in that form.  However I am not sure about honey in a plastic jar that gets heated in the microwave.  I have thrown out jars of honey that crystallize in plastic jars, unless I can find a way to remove the honey and safely return it to it's pourable state.

Crystallized honey in glass jars.

During hot months, or if you live in a warm climate,  you can simply set your honey jars out in the sun and let Mother Nature do the work.  It may take awhile but it's easy!

If you are dealing with crystallized honey and don't have that option, here are some other suggestions. 

The water does not need to be higher than the honey to de-crystallize it.

Store your honey in glass jars because it is much easier to deal with it in glass jars.  Put water into a deep saucepan and heat until boiling.  Remove pan from heat and submerge your honey jar directly in the hot water.  Leave it until the honey is clear; repeat if necessary. 

Crystallized honey can be a "solid mess"!

 If you have more than a jar or two of crystallized honey as we sometimes do, you can use a double boiler set-up to dissolve the crystals from your honey.  Put crystallized honey into the top of a double boiler or a stainless steel bowl.

Create a double boiler with a stainless steel bowl and ordinary saucepan.

Set that atop a pan with simmering water; be sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of your double boiler. 

Leave your honey to heat up, stirring occasionally, until the honey is clear.  Pour back into clean bottles and enjoy!

Bucket of crystallized honey.

 We deal with honey every year.  Some years we get the most beautiful, delicious honey; another year we deal with a lot of crystallizing.  Honey just varies from one year to another.  When you have buckets of honey, you learn a lot about the many ways to re-create clear, pourable honey.  In the photo above, I actually used an ice cream spade to scoop out honey!