Firstly molasses is something my father fed to the cows. You spread some hay in the feeding trough and drizzle molasses over. Cows love it.
Opening the jar of molasses was a Proustian moment for me. Memories of my childhood, my father and our farm were overpowering. Appropriate though as this weekend is the second anniversary of my father's passing.
I had seen a recipe for Brazilian babas in the latest Australia Vogue Entertaining and Travel. I figured I would replace the sugar with molasses and it would go well with the babas. And this is when the disaster began. The molasses totally overpowered the spices and it tasted awful. Then I had an idea - I would make bread using the molasses for the liquid and throw in the raisins which had been soaking in Grand Marnier.
What I ended up with was a bowling ball. It was smaller than a ten pin bowling ball and a little bigger than a lawn bowling ball. Bowling ball bread.
BUT - it had a nice taste - although you couldn't really eat it. It was gluggy and a bit like putty for fixing the panes of glass into wooden window frames. The flavours of the spices (cinnamon, cardamom, anise) complemented the molasses. So I now have this jar of molasses and I think I might experiment to see if I can make a bread using the molasses with the spices.
In New Zealand and Australia we will be celebrating Anzac Day on 25th April and I made Anzac biscuits which uses Golden Syrup . You can see them here .
Thanks to our host for this month's SHF Derrick over at Obsession With Food . He'll be posting the round up of all entries.
