Pantry Staples
Best Honey Substitutes
Out of Honey? Here are 2 real substitutes, ranked and ratio-backed.
1. Maple syrup
Ratio: 1:1
Thinner than honey with a distinctly different, less floral flavor — a fine swap in most baking, but the flavor difference is noticeable in anything where honey is the star (like honey cake).
Best for: baking, cooking
2. Granulated sugar + water
Ratio: 1 cup granulated sugar dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water, per 1 cup honey
Approximates honey's sweetness and moisture content, but has none of its distinct flavor or the extra browning honey causes.
Best for: baking (flavor-neutral)
Honey brings more to a recipe than sweetness — its acidity, distinct floral flavor, and the extra browning it causes in baked goods (from its fructose content browning faster than table sugar) are all real functional properties a substitute needs to account for, not just matching sweetness level alone.
Maple syrup is the most common liquid-sweetener substitute for honey specifically because both are liquid, both add moisture a dry sweetener wouldn't, and both have real, distinct flavors of their own — though maple syrup's flavor is meaningfully different from honey's, more of a caramelized, woody sweetness than honey's floral, sometimes fruity notes, a difference that shows most in a recipe where honey is the star flavor rather than a background sweetener.
Because honey has real antimicrobial and preservative properties from its acidity and low water content, a baked good relying on honey for moisture retention (keeping a cake or bread from drying out) can turn stale a bit faster with a substitute that doesn't share those same properties, even at an otherwise matched sweetness level.
Brown rice syrup and golden syrup both sit further down the list of realistic honey substitutes, worth knowing about mainly for what they lack rather than what they offer — both are considerably less floral and complex than honey, and neither carries honey's specific antimicrobial properties, making them closer stand-ins for plain liquid sweetness than for honey's fuller flavor profile.
Date syrup is a less common but genuinely useful honey substitute for a cook wanting something with real depth rather than a purely neutral liquid sweetener — its flavor leans toward caramel and dried fruit rather than honey's floral notes, a difference worth expecting rather than being surprised by in a recipe where honey's flavor was meant to be noticeable.
Need to convert Honey first? See its conversion page.
Frequently asked questions
Can maple syrup replace honey 1:1?
Generally yes by volume, though maple syrup's flavor is distinctly different — more caramelized and woody rather than honey's floral, sometimes fruity character — a difference that matters more in a recipe where honey's specific flavor is the point, like a honey cake.
Why do baked goods with honey brown faster than those with sugar?
Honey's higher fructose content browns more readily under heat than table sugar's sucrose does, so a recipe substituting granulated sugar for honey (or vice versa) may need a slightly adjusted oven temperature or bake time to avoid over- or under-browning.
Is agave nectar a good honey substitute?
It's another liquid sweetener with a mild, fairly neutral flavor, making it a workable substitute where honey's specific floral character isn't essential, though it lacks honey's distinct flavor complexity and has its own somewhat different sweetness profile.
Does substituting granulated sugar for honey change a recipe's moisture?
Yes — honey is a liquid and adds moisture a dry granulated sugar doesn't, so substituting sugar for honey requires adding back that lost liquid elsewhere in the recipe to avoid a drier finished result.
Why is honey sometimes avoided in recipes for infants?
Honey can contain Clostridium botulinum spores that an infant's immature digestive system can't safely process, a genuine, well-documented risk — honey should never be given to children under 1 year old, a safety guideline distinct from any substitution consideration for older children or adults.