Molasses Bread: Bread Machine

Hold your tongue and say, "molasses on the table..."

My grandparents taught me this joke when I was younger, and I'll never forget it (I love you grandma and grandpa). But, I couldn't have even told you what molasses was if  you were to ask me. Maybe I was ignorant, but my family never used it. Since then, I hadn't thought twice about molasses until I recently stumbled across a few YouTube and Instagram posts mentioning it.

Of course, after a number of times seeing it being used in recipes or someone talking about how great it is, I did a little research.

I found that molasses is a powerhouse of nutrients, believe it or not. Containing iron, potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, and copper to name a few.

This sweetener really kicks butt.

There are many varieties of molasses, but the type you'll typically see in your grocery store or want to use is blackstrap molasses, which is actually the byproduct of the process of refining sugar cane into table sugar.

Here is a site listing all the amazing benefits of molasses with detailed explanations.

Naturally upon finding all of this mind blowing information, I went to our local grocery store and bought black strap molasses, organic and fair trade of course.

So..."What should I use molasses in?" I thought to myself.

I started by putting it in my oatmeal, but quickly found out that less is more. Man, that stuff is powerful. I also found a zillion recipes using it in cookies, cakes, sauces, and just about everything gingerbread.

But then, I stumbled upon a bread recipe that had called for molasses. It was non-vegan, but it got me thinking. Later that evening, after a very short conversation between my husband and I, which pretty much consisted of me asking if we should we make molasses bread and him responding with a quick look of excited agreement. So, we decided to take matters into our own hands and alter a traditional bread recipe and turn it into something great. Not that it wasn't great before because....bread.

This recipe is for a bread machine because frankly, I'm a bit lazy in the kitchen, but if you want to knead everything by hand and do it that way, all the more power to you.

So here we go....

This makes a 1 1/2 lb loaf.

Start by placing all of your wet ingredients in the bottom of your mixer. These are...

1 cup warm water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp molasses

Then place...

3 tbsp raw organic sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Add to your bread maker, set your settings for personal preference, and press start.

About 4 hours later you have yourself an amazing smelling, delicious tasting, loaf of molasses bread.

Please enjoy!

P.S. Go buy yourself some molasses...it's good for you.