Substitute for Molasses?

[sazji]

There are so many wonderful recipes that use molasses; unfortunately it is unavailable here, at least that made from sugar, and the molasses here made from grapes, white mulberries or carob is generally much too thin and have entirely different flavors. (That said, the white mulberry molasses is delicious..but not what I'm looking for.) Recently in Greece I found a bottle of what was labeled "molasses," but it turned out to be almost blackstrap.

What I'm wondering is, would adding some of that to a thick sugar syrup give me a reasonable substitute, or is the basic makeup of blackstrap different?

[whisks]

golden syrup, or a combination of golden syrup and treacle (the treacle makes it darker). i guess you could use straight treacle, but i find that too overwhelming. a cup of golden syrup with a tablespoon or 2 of treacle is the combination i like best, and the substitutions have been very successful. hope it works for you.

[Syrah]

Golden syrup is what I was going to suggest also.

[Woods]

There are so many wonderful recipes that use molasses; unfortunately it is unavailable here, at least that made from sugar, and the molasses here made from grapes, white mulberries or carob is generally much too thin and have entirely different flavors. (That said, the white mulberry molasses is delicious..but not what I'm looking for.) Recently in Greece I found a bottle of what was labeled "molasses," but it turned out to be almost blackstrap. 

What I'm wondering is, would adding some of that to a thick sugar syrup give me a reasonable substitute, or is the basic makeup of blackstrap different?

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If you are able to find golden syrup maybe you can find black treacle. That wouldn't be as strong as blackstrap molasses.

Edited January 30, 2006 by Woods (log)

[carswell]

From the useful Cook's Thesaurus Liquid Sweeteners page:

Substitutes: dark corn syrup OR maple syrup (works well in gingerbread cookies) OR honey OR barley malt syrup (weaker flavor; use 1/3 less) OR brown sugar (Substitute 1.5 cups brown sugar for every 1 cup molasses)

I think your idea of combining the Greek "blackstrap" with sugar syrup (or maybe honey) would be worth a try.

Edited January 30, 2006 by carswell (log)

[scott123]

Blackstrap is just basically super potent molasses. Watering it down with a neutral tasting syrup should work perfectly. Can you get your hands on corn syrup? Glucose syrup? A thick sugar syrup might crystallizae on you. That might not be a problem depending on the recipe. I'd give half bs molasses and half syrup a shot for making regular molasses. If the molasses you have on hand is dark but not really dark, then I'd say 2/3 that and 1/3 neutral syrup.

Caramelized sugar will also give you some molassessey notes.

Edited January 31, 2006 by scott123 (log)

[sazji]

Thanks for all the ideas! Treacle and golden syrup are not available (actually, I'm not even quite sure what they are myself, though I've heard of them...). Today I found a slightly more expensive grape molasses that was much thicker than what I've normally encountered. I can't even get corn syrup easily here though I imagine it must be available to bakers or confectioners and will ask. I generally buy it from Greece. It's much, much thicker than the American type, almost gluey but it has worked fine in pecan pies. I'm going to try a few small batches of different combinations and I'll post what works best.