What is Molasses & What are the Types of Molasses?

Molasses

Used for sweetening and flavoring foods and a component of brown sugar, molasses is used in many recipes! These are the BEST recipes that use molasses!

What is molasses?

Molasses is a food sweetener that is made from sugar cane or sugar beets. It is very thick in consistency, dark in color and bold in flavor. It is also one of the main components of brown sugar.

While most people think of molasses as being used in baking, it also used for many other reasons including savory recipes. Here are some of them:

distilling rum
to make dark rye breads
in barbecue sauces
in dark beers like porters and stouts
in the jerky making process
BBQ Sauces

Sweet Ways to Use Molasses

Of course you can make a molasses cookie recipe, but you can also make gingerbread cookies. Swap dark corn syrup or honey for more flavor, add a small dollop to chocolate chip cookies or peanut butter cookies or an unexpected flavor.

What are the types of molasses?

Light Molasses– One of my go-to’s for baking, it is a little thinner and has a nice balance of sweet and tart with a mild flavor. It is the first press after sugar, so it leaves behind a good deal of sweetness and sugar content. I use light Grandma’s Brand for these cookies. Some people would call it regular molasses and it is the type you’d find at the grocery store.
Dark Molasses (sometimes labeled medium)– A little thicker than light and more bitter because it has been pressed twice for sugar, but not as full bodied as blackstrap.
Blackstrap- Robust blackstrap molasses that is deep in rich flavors and more bitter than sweet since it has virtually no sugar crystals left. It is also called sorghum molasses, a thick syrup.
Treacle– This one dates back to Victorian times and is very sweet as it is a combination of molasses and refined syrup. It will give your cookies a more sugar taste than molasses. It is also paler in color and has a bitter flavor.