Molasses Brown Bread Dilemma
Perhaps someone can help me with my Brown Bread dilemma. I'm looking for a bread that gives less sweetness, and a stronger molasses taste.
I'm working with a clone of the Cheesecake Factory Brown Bread, which calls for 1 T. sugar, 1/4 C. honey, 2 T. molasses, as well as some cocoa powder, expresso powder, bread flour and WW flour. Along with the usual salt, water and butter.
Most of the recipes I've researched out all call for a greater amount of honey that molasses.
My results are an overly sweet bread, that is soft, and with a hint of molasses taste. I'd like to reverse this result, and was wondering if I should just switch the honey and molasses amounts? I'd also like to achieve a more chewy crust if possible. I believe I ran across a recipe that incorporated some milk for a more chewy crust.
Presently I'm using Grandma's Unsulphured Molasses which is the yellow label bottle. I do have Lyle's Black Treacle, Lyle's Golden Syrup and some Golden Barrel Unsulphured Supreme Baking Molasses coming. I believe this baking molasses to be a bit stronger due to its being a mixture of blackstrap molasses and fancy molasses.
So that's my situation and the ingredients I'm working with. Can anyone point me to a recipe or book that gives a more molasses flavored brown bread? Or is it just a simple matter of reversing the amounts of honey and molasses?
I appreciate any consideration you can give to this bread dilemma. Thank you!
"and was wondering if I should just switch the honey and molasses amounts?"
Yes, that would do it, or at least change the taste in the direction you want to go. 1/4 cup molasses, and 1/8 cup (2 Tbsp) honey.
You may even also want to eliminate the honey (and maybe the white sugar) to reduce the sweetness, and add 1 to 1.5 Tbsp water to compensate. (That is... 1/4 cup blackstrap, no honey, no table sugar, plus additional 1.5 Tbsp water.)
I would also recommend _blackstrap_ molasses instead of regular/fancy molasses. The most common brand of blackstrap molasses that I've encountered is Brer Rabbit brand. Find it next to the pancake syrup at grocery stores, and Walmart. Or in the baking aisle.
Blackstrap has the same amount of sugar as regular molasses, but has more "ash" or residue/minerals or "flavor" from the sugar cane. Therefore, you get more molasses "flavor" for the same amount of "sweetness."
If you compare nutrition labels on bottles of Brer Rabbit blackstrap to Brer Rabbit regular (aka "Full flavor"), you can see that blackstrap has twice as much potassium per serving, 400 versus 200 for regular, if I recall correctly. Potassium is one of the minerals. So more potassium correlates to more flavor. So the amount of potassium in molasses is an approximate measure of the "flavor to sweetness" ratio. Though not all brands list potassium in the Nutrition Info box like Brer Rabbit does.
I just checked online, and Whole Foods carries Plantation brand blackstrap molasses, if you can't find blackstrap at your regular grocery or Walmart.
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I've used a lot of blackstrap molasses in bread baking. I can vouch that the "molasses flavor" of the BS style is much stronger than regular molasses.
Plantation brand BS has 340 mg potassium per tbsp. (scroll through photos to see nutrition info)
https://www.amazon.com/Plantation-Blackstrap-Molasses-15-oz/dp/B000QV19BM
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Brer Rabbit BS molasses has 450 mg potassium per tbsp:
https://www.amazon.com/Brer-Rabbit-Blackstrap-Molasses-Pack/dp/B07QNNMNWM
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Brer Rabbit Full Flavor molasses has 210 mg potassium per tbsp:
https://www.amazon.com/Brer-Rabbit-Molasses-Full-Flavor/dp/B000RPXSXO
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Golden Barrel Supreme Baking has 230 mg potassium per tbsp:
https://www.goldenbarrel.com/product/golden-barrel-supreme-baking-molasses/
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So of those 4, Brer Rabbit BS is going to give you the most "molasses taste" per tbsp.
Awesome. I'm diving in then!
And share your findings.
Bon appétit.
Hi Ricko
i'd be inclined to halve the quantities of sugar and honey and double the Molasses and see if thats to your liking and after that try cutting out the honey and sugar altogether and incrementally increase the molasses to your liking. Not good with cups and spoon measures so cant suggest recipe values.
regards Derek. ps Well done on filling in your info panel i wish all poster would.
I highly recommend a tiny pan so you can bake every couple of days. No big deal if a loaf turns out not so great. Then adjust away. I try to go too far and then back off. I like the suggestion to drop the honey and sugar and boost the molasses.
baking a rye bread instead. Coffee, molasses, cocoa ingredients all aiming to imitate a slow baked rye sourdough bread. Natural not over done sweetness and complicated aromas and flavours are classic without all those added ingredients. Maybe such brown bread recipes came about when rye was short or not available.
Give rye a try or at the least toss some soft rye porridge into your recipe.
Apple yeast water can also give you what you want without the sweet additives and it colors the crumb too!
Have you ever had Boston Brown Bread? The flavor you are decribing reminds me of that.
Edit with links... These are pretty similar to each other, not sure how they compare to the recipe you are using. One of them might give you ideas on how to proceed with your recipe? Vs just make one of them for comparison?
Of possible interest: Traditional preparation calls for steaming the bread, but it bakes in a loaf pan just fine too. Ours usually included raisins, and occasionally some walnut bits.
See what you think:
https://newengland.com/today/food/breads/boston-brown-bread/
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/boston-brown-bread-recipe
Mary