Hi and welcome to Bold Baking Basics!
This is where we get into the fundamentals of baking.
These videos are about getting you to bake with confidence, anytime anywhere.
So, molasses, also known as treacle is dark sugary syrup with an almost kind of bitter
taste to it.
It is used a lot in baking to get a dark color and also a caramel flavor.
I do know that it's not available worldwide so I'm gonna show you how you can make a fantastic
molasses substitute to use in your baking.
As always the recipe can be found on BiggerBolderBaking.com and make sure you check out my website because
I've got loads more videos and recipes over there.
Okay, let's get started.
So over here I've got a heavy-bottomed saucepan, on the stove, and we're just gonna add a few
ingredients into it.
The main ingredient for this recipe is a dark brown sugar.
Now you need this because it gives it all the flavor and the color.
So we're just gonna add that straight in there.
Next we're going to add a little bit of water to make it nice and syrupy.
Now because we're making some sort of kind of a caramel situation going on here, we want
to make sure that it doesn't crystallize and how you can do that is adding cream of tartar.
It's an acid that will stop your sugar from crystallizing.
I recommend you always have this in your kitchen, order it on amazing, it's a few dollars, and
then you always have it to hand.
You often see it in cookies, maybe my homemade corn syrup, different things like that, it's
always handy to have just a little bit close by.
So in you go.
Okay, last but not least, some fresh lemon juice.
This also prevents the sugar from crystallizing so don't forget about that guy.
In you go.
So that's it, all you have to do is turn on the heat to roughly around a medium, let the
sugar dissolve, and then we're gonna bring it to a simmer.
At the beginning just give your mix a little stir so everything is well combined.
So once you see it coming to a simmer the next step actually happens really fast.
It will only take maybe 3-4 minutes.
But I'm gonna show you exactly what to look for rather than timing it.
So as you can see now, it's a very thin dark syrup.
And it's just pouring off my spatula.
In around 203 minutes you'll notice that syrup getting a little bit thicker and pouring slowly
off your spatula.
It means that your caramel is forming.
Do you see that?
How it's kinda slowed down?
And it's taking longer to drip off the spatula.
This is a technique you use in caramel-making, corn syrup, stuff like that.
So if I give you these telltale signs, you can real nail this recipe, timing can be a
little bit different, there can be lots of different factors that can affect it.
But if you know exactly what to look for, you're gonna get the same result as I did.
Okay so this is what we're going for, it's been 4 minutes, do you see how it's slowly
dripping off my spatula?
That is what you want.
It's formed more of a caramel, it's getting thicker, now here is what I want you to do,
and this is just in general.
Always be a step ahead of yourself.
This, when it goes cold, will actually get very syrupy and much thicker so you might
be thinking right now it doesn't look like molasses and it doesn't, but once it goes
cold it will.
So turn it off the heat, set it aside to cool down, and then we'll check on it.
This makes quite a lot of treacle, you're gonna get around a cup, cup and a half, do
that'll be plenty for your baking for a few weeks.
So while our molasses is cooling down I want to show you something.
Do you see how this is all kind of crystallized and granulated?
This can happen to your molasses, but do not worry, you can totally fix it, what you want
to do is just pop it into the microwave or even into a little pot over the heat, and
just heat it up until that sugar dissolves and then you can use it just as you would
regular molasses.
It's as good as new.
So once your molasses substitute has cooled down, go ahead and pour it into a jar.
There's loads of big & bold recipes you can use this molasses substitute in, my crockpot
gingerbread, my soft and chewy molasses cookies, my homemade bran flakes, and my ginger crinkle
cookies.
So if you liked this recipe, you are gonna love what's over on my website.
Head over there and check out other Basics, like how to make a corn syrup substitute and
your own homemade cream cheese.
I'll see you back here really soon, for more Bigger Bolder Baking!