What is Molasses Used for in Baking? (2024)

FAQs

What is Molasses Used for in Baking? ›

Molasses adds moisture and color to baked goods like pecan pie, and it thickens up barbecue sauce for meat like pulled pork. Some other ways to use molasses in cooking include: 1. Syrup: Light molasses can be a substitute for maple syrup, drizzled over pancakes or to sweeten a bowl of oatmeal.

The lighter grades of molasses made from sugarcane are edible and are used in baking and candy-making and to make rum. Blackstrap and other low grades of cane molasses are used in mixed animal feed and in the industrial production of vinegar, citric acid, and other products.

In baking, molasses imparts robust flavor to spice cookies, gingerbread and some cakes. Another one of its unique properties? It attracts water, meaning it helps bread, cake or cookie recipes turn out soft and stay fresh longer.

Dark, sticky molasses adds a sweet, almost smoky flavor to cookies and cakes, plus it pairs perfectly with winter spices like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg!

Molasses serve several purposes in baked goods such as: Sweetening: contributing to sweetness, although with lower intensity than sucrose. Its sweetness decreases as color darkens. Flavor: providing a broad and complex range of flavors, from caramel to bitter notes.

After the end of World War I, refined sugar prices dropped drastically resulting in the migration of consumers from molasses to white sugar crystals.

From the Latin word mellaceum—“honey-like”—molasses is used in cooking, especially in the Caribbean and the southern United States where sugar crops grow. Molasses gives baked beans their thick texture, sweetens up barbecue sauces, and makes gingerbread cookies brown, soft, and chewy.

Mold on molasses can look like a barely perceptible slick on the surface, or a noticeably fuzzy, discolored patch. If you see even a tiny spot, throw out the entire jar. Molasses can also expire in less obvious ways. If it seems to have separated or has an unpleasant odor, it's also time to purchase a new bottle.

Molasses contains more nutrients than refined sugar. However, while molasses appears to be a slightly less harmful version of sugar, it can still have negative health effects. Anyone consuming molasses should do so in moderation, bearing in mind that a serving is 1 tbs, or 20 g.

It is far less sweet than syrup or honey and the darker the molasses, the less sugar it contains. Molasses has a slightly bitter flavour that is favoured in traditional North American recipes such as Boston baked beans and it also goes into the making of rich fruit cakes, gingerbread and treacle toffee.

How to use molasses in baking? ›

You can also use it to flavor muffins, cakes, and rolls, add complexity to pumpkin pie filling or oatmeal, stir some into steamed pudding batters, flavor frosting or ice cream, or drizzle atop buttered biscuits or scones.

Molasses is a thick, dark syrup made during the sugar-making process. First, the sugar cane is crushed and the juice is extracted. The juice is then boiled to form sugar crystals and removed from the liquid. The thick, brown syrup left after removing the sugar from the juice is molasses.

While they have similar uses, molasses and maple syrup are different. Molasses is made using beet or cane sugar and maple syrup is made using maple tree sap. So what's the difference between molasses and maple syrup? Besides the way they are produced, maple syrup and molasses have different tastes and textures.

What does molasses do in cookies? The main role of molasses in cookies is adding a lot of flavor! It also adds some sweetness (although sugar is also a part of this recipe). Molasses also adds the rich brown color, as it's one of the wet ingredients in the batter.

Doubling up on molasses softened the cookies significantly.

Molasses is also extremely dark in color, so this batch of cookies turned out to be a deep brown.

Light molasses is the liquid that remains after the first white sugar is extracted from cane juice. The flavor is lighter and has more fruity notes to it, in the same way the first pressing of olives makes a lighter, fruitier olive oil. Light (sometimes called "fancy") molasses is ideal for baked goods and candies.

Many people use blackstrap molasses in place of refined sugars for health reasons. They're lower on the glycemic index than conventional sweeteners, which means they won't spike your blood sugar as much. This makes blackstrap molasses a great alternative for people working to maintain healthy blood sugar levels.

Slave families used molasses to sweeten food and beverages. Blackstrap molasses, a very dark molasses, was a tradition in African American cooking. It is made by slowly cooking the juice of sugar cane.

Blackstrap molasses has a lead warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because the processing of molasses infrequently involves using a direct flame with coals that may contain a high amount of the caustic substance potash. The soil in which the sugar cane grows may also contain lead.

Molasses remained the most popular sweetener through the nineteenth century. Used to sweeten drinks as well as confections, molasses was also used to flavor meat, especially pork and ham. By the 1830s, a bride's popularity was measured by the number of layers of molasses stack cake guests brought her.