Molasses Buns - Sugar free, probiotic winter treat!

I have been busy baking and cooking for the last couple of days as we have had a birthday celebration as well as our little Thanksgiving, so have made a few oldies as well as some new recipes to me. Amongst them is roasted pheasant (which was delicious), molasses buns and a steamed pudding...

To be honest I haven't done any of these in years. Once upon a time I would have made roasted game birds quite often at certain times of the year. And as we approach Solstice it is nice to try out some of these and give them a trial run. I like to make things a few times to get it down pat, but also to tweak my own recipe..

Another recipe I tried out on the gang here was old fashioned molasses buns - this is something I would have grown up eating as molasses is a common enough additive in Newfoundland. However, my children would have never eaten this type of food, until we bought molasses to make feed for the goats!

So, now we have organic molasses and I have been itching to bake and use it in my cooking... So far I have made these buns and of course they are great and very easy to make. Actually we used to refer to them as hockey pucks growing up, come to think of it they do look a little like that.

To make molasses buns you would start off with all the usual ingredients....

Molasses Buns

4 cups spelt flour

1 duck egg

1 cup molasses

1 cup butter (melted)

¼ cup agave syrup or honey

½ to ¾ cup goat’s milk

1 cup raisins

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon, cloves or allspice (or 1 teaspoon of a mixture of these)

Preheat your oven to 180°C and line a large cookie sheet or some other pan with parchment paper. Measure out the flour, baking soda, spices and salt into a deep bowl and sift together. 

In a small saucepan melt the butter and add molasses and honey to this mixture. Add the milk to the egg and whisk well. Pour these wet ingredients into the dry flour mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. If too dry, add a little more milk as you add the raisins.

Roll out onto a generously floured surface to about 4 or 5 cm thick or more if desired. Using a cookie cutter or a glass, punch out round shapes and transfer these onto the cookie sheet. Then quickly into the hot oven.

Bake for about 14 -15 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. These are delicious warm with butter and a tart jam or on their own with a cup of herbal tea. 

A little taste of something very old and wintery - but also great as a gut probiotic! 

April

Floury Molasses buns