For Best Baking, Use Real Molasses, Not Black Stripes.
Molasses is an essential ingredient in all types of foods, from hot gingerbread to homemade barbecue sauce, but not all molasses are suitable for baking and barbecuing. Although prized for its mineral content, molasses does not affect true molasses in terms of flavor or baking properties.
Stella Parks can explain all the differences between a black strap and common things, including differences in manufacturing, but the main takeaways are about taste:
- Molasses: This is a thick and dark product, contains 1% of the RDI sodium and is low in sugar. (In case you’re wondering, it has a sugar content of about 40%.) It tastes salty and bitter and therefore not suitable for most recipes.
- Real molasses: Real molasses, on the other hand, is much sweeter (with a sugar content of around 70%), flows more freely and has a much higher moisture content, making it easier to knead the dough.
If that doesn’t convince you to ditch the black strap in baked goods and beans, click the link below to see the story of two gingerbread flakes. Parks baked one batch with real molasses and the other with black ribbon. I won’t spoil the ending, but let’s just say there was only one real winner.
Difference Between Blackstrap and Real Molasses | Serious food