I always enjoyed honey jumbles as a child, mostly the store bought ones from Arnott’s that I’m sure a lot of Aussie kids grew up with too. But like many things I liked as a child, the store bought version just doesn’t seem as good now. So it was time to make my own.
Honey Jumbles are a spiced biscuit shaped in a log, with either pink or white icing. Oddly, lots of honey jumble recipes don’t use honey, but golden syrup. While golden syrup can give baked goods a great flavour, I don’t see why honey jumbles wouldn’t actually have honey in them. So for my attempt I have used honey, and I think they taste great - and do what they say on the tin so to speak.
I had the idea to make honey jumbles with pomegranate icing many months ago. A friend gave me a 2020 planner for my birthday late last year and since I had already bought myself a diary, I decided to use the planner for blog, recipe development and photography work. It’s been great to use (even if having a planner/diary for 2020 has been a little ironic and redundant at times!), and around Christmas last year I sat down and in the notes page before each month listed what holidays etc fell in that month.
I like using holidays (both ones I celebrate and ones I don’t) as recipe inspiration, and when it came to September, a few honey based recipes for Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, came to mind. Including this one. Both honey and pomegranates are important foods at this holiday, and I thought the combination of the two would be great. Especially considering honey jumbles traditionally have pink icing, and let’s face it the pink ones were the best anyway (everyone fought over them in our house anyway!).
Using pomegranate juice in a glaze icing like this is also a great way to get a fantastic natural colour in an icing. It doesn’t add much to the taste, but I think it’s well worth it for the amazing natural colour. You could do half the honey jumbles with pomegranate icing, then make a lemon glaze for the rest if you wanted some pink and some white.
When I first tested this recipe the honey jumbles baked into a jumbo size biscuit. And while everyone said the size was fine, I still felt I needed to perfect the recipe! So this is the final recipe, with honey in like it should, and a bit more regular sized too. If you want to make jumbo ones use all self raising flour instead of the self raising and plain combo, and roll the dough into slighter bigger logs - and leave lots of room in between each on your baking trays as they will be massive (and make a few less than the recipe below)!
NB. You will need three or four large trays to cook these all at once. If you don’t have that many trays or the oven space, bake half and leave the remaining dough in the fridge until you can bake it.
Honey Jumbles with Pomegranate Icing for Rosh Hashanah
Ingredients:
120g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
50g dark brown sugar
50g (2 tbsp) honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
190g self raising flour
100g plain flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
Ingredients for the Icing:
250g icing sugar (confectioners)
3 tbsp pomegranate juice
Method:
Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line three large baking trays with baking paper.
In a small/medium saucepan over low heat, mix together the butter, sugars, honey and vanilla extract. Mix until everything has melted and is well combined. Remove from the heat and allow to cool down a bit.
In a large bowl combined the flour and spices, whisk to remove any lumps.
Once the butter mixture has cooled a little, mix in the egg. Then add to the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.
Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for at least 30-45 minutes so the dough has time to chill and firm up.
Roll small teaspoonfuls of the dough into balls, then shape into a small narrow log and place on the trays, about 3cm long and no more than 1cm wide. The cookies will spread as they bake so leave enough room in between.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Rotate the trays in the oven about halfway through to ensure the cookies cook evenly.
Allow to cool on their trays.
Once the honey jumbles have cooled, make the icing by mixing together the icing sugar and 2 tbsp of the pomegranate juice. Continue to add pomegranate juice a little at a time until you have a thick, smooth spreadable icing. If the icing is too runny it will run off the biscuits, so add a little more icing sugar if needed.
Spread a thick layer of icing over the middle of each biscuit, and leave to set for 2-3 hours.
Makes about 40-42 biscuits. Store in an airtight container
