The Ideal Sauce For Homemade Hot Honey

If you've ever tried hot honey, you know the delectable power of this sweet, spicy, oozy condiment of golden, luscious honey dotted with a hint of chile pepper flavor. Hot honey has incredible versatility — there's almost nothing you can put it on that would raise eyebrows. The subtle spice gently hits the tongue before being soothed by the smooth honey. It's irresistible, with just the right amount of heat, elevating nearly everything it touches.

If you want to recreate your favorite restaurant-quality or store-bought hot honey at home, you're in luck. You'll only need two ingredients to make homemade hot honey happen, and they're in the condiment's name: Hot sauce and honey. However, not just any hot sauce will do. Your ideal choice of hot sauce is a thin one, as it will properly mix and incorporate with the honey instead of taking over as the primary taste and texture. If you go too thick, you could ruin the honey's consistency. An ideal hot honey can drizzle, so you don't want to use a too-thick hot sauce that will compromise that viscosity.

Your choice of hot sauce can affect a homemade hot honey's consistency, but it can also impact the taste. When making hot honey, you want a hot sauce that carries some acidity along with its spice to contrast the sweetness. In this case, your favorite vinegar-based hot sauce is the way to go, as the tanginess of the vinegar allows the pepper flavor to shine in the hot sauce.

Your choice of honey also impacts the hot honey's taste. There are plenty of delicious, fascinating floral kinds of honey like clover or wildflower honey, but these are not the correct choice for hot honey. These fancier, floral-noted honeys are already infused and deserve to be enjoyed on their own. Combining them with hot sauce could lead to a muddling of flavors.

A thin, vinegar-based hot sauce will match with a thicker, blended honey. Blended honey combines honey with natural syrups to create that unique viscosity and sweetness. These contrasting textures come together exquisitely, as the thin hot sauce weaves its way through the thick honey. Once the texture is to your liking, your hot honey can start rocking your culinary world, even upgrading other existing condiments like in a homemade hot honey mustard.

Hot honey is a great starter for creating a variety of dips or condiments, but its simplicity is so irresistible on its own. Pizza is perhaps the most popular application for hot honey, with its sweet kick perfectly elevating every crusty, cheesy bite. It's great for other savory bites too, like as the finishing touch for your smashed potatoes. And you certainly can't go wrong drizzling it, like on top of gourmet popcorn. The hot honey drizzle makes even the plainest popcorn pop with sticky sweetness and sizzling heat.

Just as hot honey can sweeten up savory bites, it can equally spice up sweet ones. Swap out the caramel sauce on your next ice cream sundae for some hot honey. You'll still get the saucy and sticky-sweet consistency of a caramel sauce with honey, but also transform every frozen ice cream bite with a dash of heat. However you enjoy your homemade hot honey, you'll be on the right track as long as you start with the right kind of hot sauce and an equally delicious honey.