If you are new to honey and what you can eat it with, this guide is for you. I was new to honey just a few years back. I always said I did not like honey, but I didn’t realize the difference between store‑bought honey and real, raw, unfiltered honey. When I first tried real honey, it completely changed my mind.
In this post, I’m sharing 10 easy, delicious ways to use raw honey every day, from breakfast ideas to desserts and even savory dishes, to help you enjoy the benefits of real honey in your own kitchen.
Years later, honey and maple syrup are the only sources of “sugar” in our home.
Since I never liked honey before, up until a few years ago, I didn’t really know how to use it besides eating a spoonful. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with eating honey by the spoonful as a treat or quick home remedy, but there are many more ways you can enjoy your honey and benefit from all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and natural enzymes that raw honey still contains.
Before we dive into the ideas, I want to quickly explain why I keep saying raw, unfiltered honey instead of just “honey.” For me, there is a huge difference between the typical store‑bought squeeze bottle and real, minimally processed honey that still tastes like the flowers it came from.
Raw honey isn’t heated to high temperatures or heavily filtered, so it keeps more of its natural enzymes, tiny traces of pollen, and those subtle vitamins and minerals that get lost in a lot of commercial honey. It also has way more character in the flavor—whether it’s deep and dark like Black Mangrove or lighter and floral like Wildflower—so you can actually taste the difference, and a little goes a long way.
That’s why all of the ideas below focus on using real, raw, unfiltered honey: you’re not just adding sweetness, you’re adding flavor and a little extra goodness from the hive.
Here are 10 of my favorite ways to use raw honey, plus a few ideas you might not have tried yet, to help you incorporate honey into your own health journey.
1. Homemade Yogurt
Homemade yogurt is by far my favorite way to enjoy raw honey such as our Black Mangrove Honey or Wildflower Honey. Black Mangrove honey gives just the right amount of sweetness with the perfect flavor combination that makes the yogurt taste more like ice cream than yogurt.
This combination is so satiating that it will cure any and all sweet‑tooth cravings without having to feel guilty about it. It’s highly nutritious and, best of all, great for your gut. (I’ll link our article with the recipe in the near future when it’s ready.)
2. Sourdough Toast with Butter
They say bread is not good for you, but if it’s made with good‑quality organic wheat and rye flour, sourdough bread can be highly nutritious. Who doesn’t love a slice of freshly made bread?
Now imagine indulging in a warm sourdough toast with butter and a small drizzle of raw honey, such as our Brazilian Pepper Honey or Wildflower Honey. This pairs perfectly with breakfast or a freshly brewed cup of coffee.
3. Homemade Chocolate Bar Filled with Honey
In my health journey I have tried many different diets and recipes, and one thing I have not been able to stay away from for too long is chocolate—or more specifically its healthier form: raw cacao. I just love making and eating things with it.
Most chocolates on the market have too much sugar or other unwanted ingredients (with a few exceptions), so I started looking for alternatives and found this amazing recipe from Steak and Butter Gal. She uses butter instead of cacao butter or other fats, mixes it with cacao powder to form a bar, and fills it with raw honey.
The first time I made this I could not get enough. Our Black Mangrove Honey pairs perfectly with the dark, rich taste of the chocolate.
4. Homemade “Mousse”
I started making my very own “mousse” at home to satisfy those sweet‑tooth cravings, and this super quick and simple recipe works wonders.
I take about half a cup of heavy whipping cream (if it’s raw and grass‑fed it’s even better) and put it in my stand mixer. Then I add 1 tablespoon of cacao powder, a pinch of salt, ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract, and about 1 tablespoon of raw honey like Wildflower Honey or Black Mangrove Honey. Saw Palmetto Honey should work well too, as it’s not too floral. I whip the cream a bit longer than I would normally whip it if it were for whipped cream, so that it feels a bit denser/heavier. Try it out and see what you like best.
In just a couple of minutes you get a rich, creamy mousse that feels like dessert but uses simple, real ingredients.
5. Charcuterie Board
In the last year we have been hosting a lot of our friends and have gotten pretty good at making charcuterie boards. One thing I haven’t done yet—but will very soon, and keep seeing recommended—is adding honey to the board.
Honey pairs really well with lots of cheeses, especially the stronger‑flavored ones. A small dish of raw honey (I’d recommend Black Mangrove Honey or Brazilian Pepper honey for a deeper flavor, or Wildflower Honey for something lighter) on your charcuterie board lets people drizzle a little over cheese, cured meats, and crackers for that sweet‑savory bite.
6. Homemade Chocolate Pudding
This is a recipe that seemed to go viral on social media in the last year or two. It’s a great way to get a lot of protein in while satisfying that sweet‑tooth craving.
The recipe is very simple and makes a great dessert. The ingredients are eggs, milk and/or heavy cream or cottage cheese, vanilla, salt, cacao powder, and raw honey to sweeten to taste. I just made it and it does the trick when I want a bit of sweetness after lunch.
There are lots of recipes out there, but here is a link to a simple one I found from Steak and Butter Gal on Instagram. In our case, just use your favorite raw honey (I like Wildflower Honey here) to make it animal‑based instead of carnivore and adjust the amount of honey based on your preference.
7. Homemade Pancakes
Pancakes are an American staple that cannot go missing at a Sunday brunch. We found a simple homemade recipe that uses einkorn flour instead of regular wheat flour, making it more nutritious and still great‑tasting and fluffy like regular pancakes.
The recipe calls for a sweetener, and we have often used maple syrup in the batter, but it can easily be replaced with honey. In my personal opinion, the honey is best reserved for when the pancakes are ready and served. Black Mangrove Honey pairs especially well with a good slice of softened butter on top of the pancake.
8. Homemade Oatmeal
My son loves homemade oatmeal. Again, this is another simple breakfast recipe that can be healthy when using the right quality organic oats. The best way to make oatmeal at home is to use whole grains that are soaked overnight and then cooked thoroughly.
We make ours with milk or water, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Sometimes we skip the cinnamon and add frozen or fresh strawberries. The strawberries give the oatmeal a great pink color and an exceptional flavor.
Once the oatmeal is served and has cooled slightly, we swirl honey on top and mix it in. This way we preserve all the nutrients from the raw honey by not adding it while cooking. A floral Wildflower Honey works beautifully here.
9. Bacon and Turkey Omelet
This one may seem slightly strange, but don’t knock it until you try it. It all starts with that Sunday brunch where your eggs share the plate with homemade pancakes, and you pour honey on top of the pancakes… some of it drips over and touches the eggs.
When that happens, the only thing left to do is to eat the eggs with honey on them. Next thing you know, you start experimenting by adding honey (on purpose) to fried eggs and different omelets.
My son doesn’t love cheese, especially not in his omelets, but he does love a good sliced turkey breast and bacon omelet with a drizzle of honey is his go‑to, second only to pancakes.
10. Tea and Coffee
This one may seem obvious for some, at least on the tea side. Many places offer honey as a sweetener for tea, and I have to say tea with honey is definitely the only way to sweeten tea. Anything else just doesn’t pair as well.
The variety of honey you use can depend on the type of tea, whether it is green, black, herbal, etc. and different honeys will pair nicely with different teas depending on the flavor you’re going for. A lighter Wildflower Honey is great for delicate teas, while Black Mangrove Honey can be amazing with stronger black teas.
Now, sweetening coffee with honey may seem less obvious. It did for me. But it’s a simple change: just switch your regular coffee sweetener for honey and sweeten to taste. The one important thing with both coffee and tea is to wait until they’ve cooled down a bit, so that when you add the honey the drink is not much hotter than about 106°F. Above that temperature, raw honey starts losing some of its beneficial properties.
Final Thoughts
I hope you get to try some of these ideas and enjoy them as much as we do in our house. If you have any ideas I haven’t shared here, I would love to hear them and possibly include them in a future article.
If you’re not sure where to start, our Black Mangrove Honey and Wildflower Honey are the two I reach for most in the ideas above. Try one new way to use honey this week and see which combo becomes your family’s favorite.
I’ll be sharing some of the detailed recipes for the ideas above in the near future in separate articles and others I have linked here so you can try making them at home yourself. My personal favorites are the homemade chocolate bar filled with honey (especially with Black Mangrove Honey) and the homemade yogurt with Wildflower Honey.
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