Honey Spiced Popcorn + inside a beehive

Honey Spiced Popcorn | Quick and easy but tops in #YUM! www.LiveBest.info

Take a peek in a beehive plus a Honey Spiced Popcorn recipe. Sweet, salty, crunchy with a spicy kick, this is one of my favorite sweet snacks!

As a beekeeper, I love to cook with my own honey and share it with friends. When I was asked to bring dessert to a friend’s dinner. I took Honey Spiced Popcorn.  I set it on a big platter and everyone nibbled on it as we sat and talked. We all agreed that was a fun dessert. But before I get to the recipe, I wanted to take you on a tour of the beehive.

The Queen Bee

bee hive inspection of frames

An inside look at a beehive. This is the frame and that blue bee is the Queen.

As beekeepers, we’ve learned that bee hives have unique personalities. It’s all about the Queen. She sets the tone of the hive. If she’s even tempered, so our her needs. If she’s grumpy, her bees are more aggressive. We love to see the queen, but with 30,000 to 50,000 bees in a hive, she can be hard to find. A marked queen is easier to find. A felt-tip marker is used to mark her abdomen which helps identify her. There is an international color system for marking queen bees when they’re born. This helps identify her age. See the blue mark on the bee in the photo above? That’s the queen. Blue means she was born in 2015.

two beehives with bees perched on the front

Tiffany Hive and Sage Hive. On a hot day, bees hang out on the porch to stay cool.

Meet the bee hives

As new beekeepers we needed a system to identify each hive and keep records on them. A friend said, the one painted blue looks “like a Tiffany box.” Meet Tiffany Hive. Tiff is on the mellow side. These bees don’t get too excited when we open the hive to inspect. They are solid honey producers.

Sage Hive is a few months old. A former hive was experiencing a population explosion, so to prevent them from swarming (when the bees recognize that the hive can’t accommodate all the bees, so they leave the original hive to create a new one), we took a few frames that contained eggs, larvae, bees, nectar, and honey and put them in Sage Hive.

We moved the hive about 3 miles away so that the bees wouldn’t return  to their original hive. Four weeks later we inspected the hive to discover that the bees had nurtured and raised their own new Queen and she was already laying eggs and developing her hive. Very exciting!

Inspecting the bee hive

Bee's Honey Comb

An inside look at a beehive with bees on the honeycomb.

When we inspect the hive we look at the honeycomb. This is the hexagonal beeswax structure where bees store nectar, pollen, and honey. It’s also where the eggs are laid and larvae and pupae grow.

Though you can’t see them in the photo above, we look for eggs (which look like a grain of rice) and larvae (looks like a white worm) to know the queen is alive and doing her job. Changes are constant. Bees are eggs for 3 days, larvae for 6 days, and brood for 12 days.

We look for nectar and honey. In the photo above you see open honeycomb that is filled with nectar. The white band at the bottom is honey that has been capped with beeswax.

We watch the bees coming in and out of the hive. Many with different colored pollen on their legs. Pollen is protein for the young bees in the nursery. With the queen laying 1,200 to 2,000 eggs per day, the bees need a continuous supply of food.

We also inspect for mites and other pests that can cause damage to the hive. 

The best part of beekeeping? Honey!

Filtering Extracted Honey

Filtering extracted honey. Air make it look creamy. It will become clear over time.

The bees like a nice neighborhood. They prefer:

  • the sunrise to warm their entrance into the hive.
  • shade to keep them cool.
  • trees to protect from wind.
  • water to drink.

The second year of beekeeping resulted in about 150 pounds of honey from two hives. That’s a great gift and I’m enjoying eating and cooking with it. Which leads to Honey Spiced Popcorn. 😉

But before I get there, here are a few more honey recipes:

I also like Taste of Honey recipe book.

 

How to make an easy gourmet Honey Spiced Popcorn

Here’s how to make Honey Spiced Popcorn. Sweet, salty, crunchy with a spicy kick, this is one of my favorite recipes. If you don’t like spicy, just omit the cayenne.

This is so easy to make. Unlike caramel corn, this is more heat and eat. 

Healthy Honey Popcorn?

It does have a healthy spin. This recipe has less butter than many caramel corn and other sweetened popcorn recipes.

The ingredients

  • 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 cup peanuts, optional
Honey Spiced Popcorn on a tray

Honey Spiced Popcorn, an easy baked caramel corn

  1. Pop the corn.
  2. Melt honey, butter, vanilla, salt, and cayenne pepper.
  3. Spread popcorn on lined baking sheet, toss with syrup.
  4. Bake at 300 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
  5. Like peanuts? Add them now.

Can you put honey on popcorn?

Yes! Drizzle it over the warm popcorn. You’ll have sticky fingers if you eat it like that. That’s why I like to bake it after drizzling. It crisps up and isn’t quite as messy.

P.S. Hungry for more healthy living tips and recipes? Sign up for my newsletter here

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bowl of crunchy honey spiced popcorn

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Honey Spiced Popcorn

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Sweet, salty, crunchy with a spicy kick, this is one of my favorite sweet snacks!

  • Author: Judy Barbe
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 35 minutes
  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 10 cups 1x
  • Category: Snack
  • Method: Stove, oven
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 cup peanuts

Instructions

  1. Pour oil in heavy-bottomed 4-quart pan. Heat over medium-low heat for a couple of minutes. Add popcorn kernels. Cover with lid and shake pan regularly. If popcorn starts to touch the lid, carefully lift part ofd the lid and pour some into a large bowl. Return pot to stove and continue cooking and shaking until popping stops.
  2. Line a baking sheet with a silicon mat or lightly spray with cooking spray.
  3. In a 1-quart pan, stir together honey, butter, vanilla, salt and cayenne pepper. Heat and stir occasionally until mixture boils.
  4. In a large bowl combine popcorn and honey syrup. Stir to coat. Be careful, this hot syrup can burn you.
  5. Spread popcorn on lined baking sheet.
  6. Bake at 300 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
  7. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with peanuts. Allow to cool.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 cup
  • Calories: 155

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Honey Spiced Popcorn | Quick and easy but tops in #YUM! Naturally sweetened popcorn. www.LiveBest.info
A look inside an bee hive. how honey is made. wwwLiveBest.info

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