Can I use honey instead of sugar in a recipe?
Short answerIt depends
Usually yes, but never one for one. Honey is about a quarter sweeter than sugar by weight, brings seventeen to twenty per cent water, is acidic enough to react with bicarbonate of soda, and browns at a much lower temperature. Use roughly 75 g of honey per 100 g of sugar, cut other liquid by about a fifth of the honey's weight, and drop the oven 15 °C.
The four adjustments
- Less honey than sugarRoughly 75 g of honey for every 100 g of sugar, by weight. Volume measures are unreliable because honey clings to the spoon — weigh it.
- Less other liquidHoney is seventeen to twenty per cent water. Reduce the recipe's other liquid by about a fifth of the honey's weight or the batter will be slack.
- Bicarbonate if there is no other acidHoney sits at pH 3.4 to 4.5. About a quarter teaspoon per 100 g of honey neutralises it. Too much leaves a soapy taste; none at all can leave a flat crumb.
- A cooler ovenDown about 15 °C, and check early. Honey browns at a much lower temperature than sugar does.
Where the swap does not work at all
There is also a flavour cost worth knowing. Prolonged baking destroys the volatile aromatics that make an expensive honey worth its price, so a floral honey in a cake tastes of generic sweetness. The honeys that come through an oven recognisably are the dark ones whose character is structural: buckwheat, chestnut and the honeydews.
It is not a health substitution
Sources
- HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Work it out for yourself
- Honey substitute calculator
How much honey do I use instead of sugar, and what else has to change?
- Pairing finder
I am eating this — which honey goes with it?
- Honey finder
Which honey should I buy for what I actually want to do with it?