They don’t have any sugar, neither white nor brown.
I saw another shopper crying.
Honey and molasses are sweet, traditional and still on the shelves.
A cook’s gotta do what a cook’s gotta do, especially during the holidays.
Okay… a few days ago I posted honey recipes.
Today we’ll take a look at molasses recipes.
Here are a few molasses recipes I’ve posted over the years.
Some are even traditional for Christmas.
The Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread is served for morning toast with butter during the Holidays.
Tell the family to think of the new recipes as a cultural experience…
or whatever excuse you think they’ll swallow.
Anna Sultana's Panettone and Gingerbread
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2021/12/anna-sultanas-panettone-and-gingerbread.html
Gingerbread and Seven Minute Frosting / Buttermilk Substitute for Baking - Margaret Ullrich
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2011/12/gingerbread-seven-minute-frosting.html
Anna Sultana’s German-Style Chocolate Cake, Kuchen and Gingerbread for Father's Day
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2023/06/anna-sultanas-german-style-chocolate.html
Anna Sultana's Qaghaq ta' l-Ghasel (Honey or treacle rings, Maltese Style)
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2010/12/anna-sultanas-qaghaq-ta-l-ghasel.html
Anna Sultana's Qaghaq tal-ghasel #2 - Treacle Rings, Maltese Style
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2013/08/anna-sultanas-qagaq-tal-gasel-2-maltese.html
Anna Sultana’s Pfeffernüsse (German Christmas Cookies)
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2015/12/anna-sultanas-pfeffernusse-german.html
Anna Sultana’s Gingersnap Cookies
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2015/12/anna-sultanas-gingersnap-cookies.html
Gingerbread Cookies (Christmas Cookies) and Royal Frosting - Margaret Ullrich
https://imturning60help.blogspot.com/2011/12/gingerbread-cookies-margaret-ullrich.html
Hints:
About the Soft Molasses Cookies…
Combine 1/2 Cup raisins with 1/2 Cup of the flour mixture before you add them to the molasses mixture.
These cookies will stay fresh, covered at room temperature, for one week.
About the Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread…
You may need to add a little more flour so that your dough will not be sticky.
Molasses bread generally takes a bit longer to rise than white bread does.
Make sure the dough rises at least a couple of inches above the bread pan’s rim before baking.
Soft Molasses Cookies
Have on hand 3 ungreased baking sheets.
Sift together into a medium bowl
2 Cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Set aside.
Place in a large mixer bowl
3/4 Cup shortening or oil
1 Cup sugar (brown will be fine)
Beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add
1/4 Cup dark molasses
Beat until combined.
Add
1 large egg
Scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed, beat until well combined.
Gradually add the dry ingredients, about 1/2 cup at a time, to the creamed mixture.
Place in a rimmed pan
1/2 Cup sugar (add more if needed while making the cookies)
Preheat the oven to 350º F
Form dough into balls about 1 1/2 inches, and roll them in the sugar in the pan.
Place on a baking sheet, about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until browned and edges appear set.
Let cool for five minutes on baking sheet before transferring to cooling racks.
Repeat with remaining dough.
Iced Soft Molasses Cookies
Yield 36 cookies
Line 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Sift into a large bowl
3 1/2 Cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
Set aside.
Place in a 2 cup measuring cup or medium bowl
3/4 Cup molasses
3/4 Cup buttermilk, room temperature
Stir well with a fork to thoroughly mix.
Place in a large mixer bowl
3/4 Cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 Cup packed brown sugar
Cream together until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Add
1 large egg, room temperature
Add the molasses / buttermilk mixture.
Scraping the bowl often, stir mixture on low. It will look curdled.
Gradually add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.
Turn off the mixer and stir a few times with a spatula, scraping the sides and bottom.
Preheat oven to 350° F
Drop measuring tablespoon size balls of batter onto the cookie sheet, two inches apart.
Bake for 12 minutes or until the cookies are done.
To test poke a cookie with a finger. If the indent bounces back then they’re done.
Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Repeat with remaining dough.
When the cookies have cooled, make the icing.
Icing
Place in a medium bowl
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 Cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 Cup cream or milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Stir together until well combined and smooth.
Either dip the tops of the cookies into the icing bowl or spoon the icing over the cookies, allowing the excess icing to run off.
Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired.
Allow the icing to set before serving.
Newfoundland Molasses Raisin Bread
Makes 2 1 1/2 pound loaves
Grease well 2 9x5x3 inch loaf pans
Place in a small bowl
1/2 Cup lukewarm water
1 Tablespoon sugar
Stir together and add
2 teaspoons dry yeast
Let stand without stirring for 10 minutes.
Stir together in a large mixing bowl
2 Cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
When the yeast is ready, stir it and add to the flour.
Stir in
1/3 Cup melted butter
1/2 Cup molasses
3/4 Cup lukewarm milk
1 large egg, beaten
Mix slowly for 5 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth with no lumps.
Gradually add
2 Cups flour
You might need to add more flour for a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.
Add
2 Cups raisins
Knead until the raisins are evenly distributed in the dough.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to knead for 10 minutes.
Place the dough in a large bowl, then cover the bowl with a damp tea towel.
Leave it to rest and rise for two hours.
Punch the dough down and knead it for a few minutes, then let it rest for 10 minutes.
Divide the dough into 6 equal portions and form each portion into a ball.
Place 3 balls of dough in each prepared loaf pan.
Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise until it is about 2 inches above the rim, about 2-3 hours.
Preheat oven to 350° F
Bake for 45 minutes. The top and bottom crust should have good colour.
Turn the loaves out onto a wire rack to cool.
Brush the tops with melted butter to soften the top crust, if desired.
~~~
I also wrote the following essay about Christmas traditions for our CKUW radio show ‘2000 & Counting’. Over the years our listeners asked for some seasonal stories to be repeated.
They seemed to like being reminded that we were all in the same holiday boat, a communal ship which made us feel like we were all sinking fast.
Ah… Christmas shopping, holiday baking and holiday customs…
Why do we do it?
I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, there are two questions no one should ever ask a woman.
The first is How old are you?
The second is Have you done your holiday baking yet?
Why is it that, when the thermometer falls, we're supposed to bake?
Does the Queen whip up a fruitcake before writing her speech?
I don't think so.
Holiday baking has been with us an awfully long time.
Did you know that ginger was popular in Greece over 5,000 years ago? The Egyptians were eating gingerbread when the great pyramid of Cheops was just a brick and a prayer. I wonder what their gingerbread men looked like.
A few years after Egypt's building boom, an English King and his hunting party got lost in a blizzard on Christmas Eve. Well, they were clever lads full of English pluck, so they threw everything they had - meat, flour, sugar, apples, ale and brandy - into a bag and cooked it. Wallah!! Plum pudding. The Iron Chef would've been proud.
On Christmas Day in 1666, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary that he had risen earlier than his wife Who was desirous to sleep having sat up till four this morning seeing her maids make mince pies.
I really admire Mrs. P. She just sat and watched her maids do the work, yet her husband felt guilty about her workload. How did she get him to suffer like that?
Some Christmas carols seem a little too focused on food. For example:
Now bring us some figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer!
We won't go until we get some, so bring it out here.
Those were somebody's friends? Somebody should've called the cops.
Holiday baking has followed us into modern times. The 1970s was the decade of old time family television shows like The Waltons and memoir books.
Have you ever browsed through a memoir book? It could make you weep. They reminded us of times like this...
Evenings when a cold blustery wind howled outside were perfect for sorting through recipes. They were cozy times. The children were sitting at the oak table helping Mama chop fruit and raisins. Papa was cracking and shelling nuts and crushing fresh spices in the grinder.
Isn't that sweet? Sentences like that convinced me that if we did things just like people did before television was invented, the world would be a kinder, gentler place.
We'll never know. Paul told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was too busy to grind nuts for a cake he didn't even want.
Alright. Scratch Paul grinding his nuts. I bought ground nuts.
Step two... the batter had to be mixed. Back to that memoir...
When all the fruits were in, Grandmother called, 'Come, stir the batter!'
We all took turns giving it a stir - clockwise for good luck - and made a wish.
I made a batter, threw in the fruits and called out Come, stir the batter!
Carl pointed to the electric mixer sitting on the counter and said that he was staying on the eighth level of his computer game, The Temple of Ra. He also told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was too busy to stir batter for a cake he didn't even want.
I stirred the batter, clockwise.
Don't ask what I wished.
It's been downhill ever since. Do you know about the charming Swedish custom of hiding a whole almond in a serving bowl of rice pudding? The lucky person who finds the almond has to get married or do the dishes. Either my husband or my son - the fink never confessed - managed to swallow the almond every time.
I tried the German version: whoever finds the almond receives a marzipan pig. By then Paul and Carl had their own tradition: swallowing the almond. I felt so guilty looking at that poor rejected pig.
I started my own tradition and ate him... along with the cake.
There's a Christmas carol that goes: Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...
Well, the goose isn't the only one.
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