As Sweet as Molasses!

I am a huge fan of baking with molasses.  Its’ flavor is sweet and robust, and where would gingerbread cookies be without it?  It is generally added to a recipe to give color, flavor, moistness and some sweetness.  Because it tends to be less sweet than regular sugar, you will usually see recipes with molasses asking you to add some other form of sugar with it.

First, let me refresh your memory on how you may have tasted molasses without even knowing it.  Molasses is common in gingerbread, indian pudding, shoofly pie,  dark ale, stout, dark rum, baked beans, barbecue sauce, brown sugar and my favorite, black licorice.

Molasses is the by-product of processing sugar cane and beets into sugar.   The juices from these plants are pressed or squeezed out, boiled, and the sugar crystals extracted.  The remaining brownish liquid is called molasses.  There are three grades of molasses, mild, dark and blackstrap. 

The mild grade is boiled only once.  It is lighter in color and flavor, and is often used as a pancake syrup.  To make dark molasses, the juices are boiled a second time.  The flavor becomes slightly bitter and is less sweet.  It is also thicker and darker than mild molasses.  Dark molasses is generally used in baking to make gingerbread.  Blackstrap molasses is basically the bottom of the barrel.  After the third boiling, most of the sugar from the original juice has been crystallized and removed.  The molasses is very dark, thick and bitter.  It contains significant amounts of minerals and some people have called it a “health food.” Because it contains quite a bit of iron, it can be used as an iron supplement for some.   Even though it contains these nutrients, it is still mainly used for cattle feed.

You have probably noticed that molasses comes in sulfured and unsulfured.  Sulfured molasses is made from younger sugar cane.  During the extraction process, sulfur dioxide is added to act as a preservative.  Unsulfured molasses is made from mature sugar cane which does not require this treatment.  The unsulfured version has a cleaner cane flavor.

All of this talk about molasses has made me want to go out and buy some black licorice!  Seriously, I hope you give it a try.  Molasses compliments baked goods that have a lot of spice in them.    With fall just around the corner, it’s time to start planning your pumpkin and apple recipes.  Molasses would be a great addition to these comforting favorites!

Sweet baking,

Pam