molasses

Cooking With Pomegranate Molasses
definition

Know Your Ingredients: Pomegranate Molasses

Looking for a new way to spice up your cooking life?
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Looking for a new way to spice up your cooking life? Try pomegranate molasses, a dark liquid used to impart a tangy, sweet flavor in dishes, particularly those of Middle Eastern origin.

Despite the name, pomegranate molasses isn't truly molasses, which comes as a byproduct of cane or beet sugar processing. Rather, this deep purple reduction, which has the consistency of maple syrup, is made by cooking down the juice of pomegranates with lemon juice and sugar.

Historically, the resulting substance is used to bring a fruit-forward pucker to meats and dishes such as muhammara, a Syrian red pepper, walnut, and garlic spread. But its uniquely nuanced taste makes it an ideal flavor booster for much more, including soups and stews, and desserts such as ice cream, cake, and candy.
The ingredient is widely available in Middle Eastern markets. Have you ever cooked with pomegranate molasses?

Why Does Brown Sugar Clump?
baking

Burning Question: Why Does Brown Sugar Clump and Harden?

It's a cozy weekend afternoon, and you're baking brown sugar caramel frosted cupcakes.
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It's a cozy weekend afternoon, and you're baking brown sugar caramel frosted cupcakes. You reach for the brown sugar and suddenly realize that it's become so hard there's no way you can possibly use it. Why is it, you wonder, that brown sugar hardens?

Brown sugar is refined white sugar with anywhere from 3.5 to 6.5 percent molasses syrup, which is a sweet, viscous byproduct of sugarcane or beet sugar. This means brown sugar contains more moisture than conventional sugar. When a package is opened and exposed to air over time, its moisture will evaporate, and the sugar will harden, forming dense clusters.

Brand-new brown sugar won't likely be hard. Once opened, properly store brown sugar by placing it in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight plastic container. If it's too late and your brown sugar's already clumpy, there are various methods to soften it quickly.

Got a burning question? Then post it in the Burning Question group in the YumSugar Community! It's your place to ask the most pressing questions about the culinary world.

Foods High in Iron and Recipes
Food

Keeping an Eye on Iron

Do you know where to find your recommended daily intake of 18 milligrams of iron?
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Foods High in Iron and Recipes

Do you know where to find your recommended daily intake of 18 milligrams of iron? The Popeye cartoon leads us all to believe that spinach is the ultimate source for iron. It does contain a decent amount. A half a cup of raw spinach will provide you with 2.7 milligrams of iron, but you have more powerful options out there.

There are a wide variety of sources, so take a look and see.

Source

Clams Oysters Beans Beef Blackstrap Molasses
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Sucanat: Pure Sugar Baby
baking

Sucanat: Pure Sugar Baby

We all know that white sugar is like the devil.
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We all know that white sugar is like the devil. It's got zero nutritional value and rots our teeth. It also makes us feel crappy when we eat it because it makes our blood sugar level spike up and then come crashing down.

Have you heard of Sucanat? It stands for Sugar Cane Natural. It's sugar in its most natural form - pure cane juice with only the water removed. This process preserves all the vitamin-filled molasses. It's organically grown with no added preservatives or additives.

Sucanut can be used in place of white sugar or brown sugar when baking, and adds a wonderful flavor due to the molasses. Unlike refined white sugar, Sucanat contains iron, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin B6, potassium and chromium.

Fit's Tips: Look for Sucanat in the baking aisle at your local health food store. It's a little bit more expensive than refined white sugar, but you're paying for the extra vitamins. Try it next time you bake some cookies or muffins. It can also be used to sweeten sauces and marinades.

Cheesy Nutritional Yeast
vegan recipes

Cheesy Nutritional Yeast

You either love it or hate it.
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You either love it or hate it. Nutritional yeast has a very yellowish color, vegans who often miss the taste of cheese often add it to food. Which is smart since the meatless dairyless vegan diet can be low in B12 and nutritional yeast is a great source for that vitamin.

You can find it in most health food stores, sold in shaker containers, or in bulk. Some brands, like Red Star make special formulas to support the dietary needs of vegans and vegetarians.

It's an inactive food yeast grown on a molasses solution, and comes in powder or flake form. It's not to be confused with brewer's yeast, which is an active yeast used to make beer.

What do you do with it? Sprinkle some on popcorn, pasta, baked potatoes, salad, steamed veggies, or bread to add a little flavor. You can also add it to dishes like stir fries, soups, gravy, or pasta sauce. Vegans also make a sauce with it to make a mock macaroni and cheese.

Fit's Tips: Looking for unique ways to use nutritional yeast? Check out The Nutritional Yeast Cookbook available through Amazon for $9.95.