That's what I do, Deb! It's very very concentrated.

I got the gingerbread syrup in the mail yesterday. It does have a milder flavor!
It's not nearly as good as the Monin brand, but I don't think they make sugar free gingerbread syrup (if they do, I haven't seen it).
I can pump up the spices easily but the punchy molasses flavor needs more. It will take a bit of syrup to get the flavor I want.
When I get the molasses syrup (soon) I will see if they complement each other. With some tinkering, I might get a mixture I like.
~sue

Thanks Jude. I love your dolphin BTW. Very cute!



deb

Does anyone have an update on how these experiments went?

Any experiment in particular?

This thread is mostly people's opinions on how they each get a molasses flavour, ranging from using a small amount of molasses to DaVinci Syrups to coffee sub with sweetener, etc.

Sue L, on Sept 15, '05 said:
When I get the molasses syrup (soon) I will see if they (gingerbread syrup from Nature's Flavors) complement each other. With some tinkering, I might get a mixture I like.

Island Girl, on Sept 8, '05 said:
Although, I just have to try the coffee sub (roasted chicory root usually) with coffee and cocoa combo, that sounds like fun and a cool experiment!

Sue L, on Aug 31, '05 said:
I haven't tried chicory or coffee but that might be a great idea for beans. Coffee and bourbon together particularly strikes my interest there.

* * * *
Because of this thread, I bought someCafix instant beverage (1g carb per tsp, with ingredients of: malted barley, barley, chicory, figs and beet roots) but I'm not very good at experiments so wanted to get an idea of how much to use with what, in order to get the molasses flavor.

I believe it was Greannmhar that actually made (varied) a spice bread recipe back in fall of 2005, what we would call a gingerbread cake. Greannmhar is still active here, maybe she can pass on her recipe.

I myself haven't actually done this yet in particular, though I have the Coffee Sub in house.

Here is my recipe for Treacle Bread - it keeps really well in the fridge and is nice with lashings of butter. I have a picture of this somewhere, but I'll have to hunt it down! I hope it gives you some idea of the proportions to use in your recipe.
Babs

Treacle Bread

100 gms Bake Mix (see below*)
80 gms Ground Almonds
30 gms Ground Linseeds
10 gms Bran (Jordan’s)
1 1/2 t Baking Powder
1/4 t Salt (don’t add this if your own bake mix already has salt in it)
2 t Mixed Spice
1 t Ground Ginger
1/8 t Stevia + 5 Splenda tablets (equivalent of 1/4 cup sweetening power)
½ t Xanthan Gum
½ t Bicarbonate of Soda
1 T Cocoa
1 T Chicory Coffee Sub granules/powder

130 gms LC Apricot jam
4 Eggs, beaten well
1 t Coffee essence
65 gms Butter, melted
160 gms Cream cheese

Mix the dry ingredients well and then stir into the wet. Pour into a greased and lined 2lb Loaf tin.
Bake in the oven at 170C for approximately 50 minutes until well risen and browned.

Approximately 1.8 Carbs per slice (based on 20 slices per loaf) or 35 for the whole recipe – depends on your jam and chicory sub and whether/how much carbs you allocate to the sorbitol in the jam.

Bake Mix

170 gms Ground Almonds
60 gms Whey Protein Isolate
100 gms Gluten Flour
1 t Baking Powder
1 t Cream of Tartar
Approx 8 carbs per 100 gms

Dearest Babs, is that "coffee essence" the Camp brand in the bottle? My mum used to have that stuff around, a liquid mix of "condensed" roasted chicory coffee and sugar...delicious in hot milk. Is that the one? I'm thinking I could sub some coffee flavoring/extract that I have on the shelf...

Jude, it's unsweetened coffee essence/extract - we get it in a wee tiny bottle about 30 mls. And yes, I remember Camp , my father used to love it, but he died last March. I can't see it on the supermarket shelves now without thinking of him
Babs

Hey, you're up! Well, over here on the other side of the planet, it's pretty late...must be morning where you are.

My sympathies, Babs; I can't see witloof (a white chicory) in the veg section without thinking of my Dad, who died a year and a half ago, suddenly.

Cool, I can use my coffee flavoring, then. It's a small bottle of concentrate, too, though I think I splurged and got the 50ml size

I look forward to trying the recipe...and here's my go at translations, please do correct my translations if they're inaccurate...



Hugs and a Happy New Year!

Thank you so much, both of you, for your contributions on this thread! It's exactly what I needed! When I get enough energy I'm gonna try it.

So, Babs, I made your recipe with a few minor variations (had a little less cream cheese handy and at room temp, used LC Marmalade instead of Apricot, different sweeteners, that kind of thing...) and it's very yummy! I've been having buttered toasted slices for breakfast


Very nice recipe AND yes, the cocoa/chicory coffee sub combo seems to work very well as a molasses sub in the presence of enough sweetener. If I was going to change anything to make it a little more 'molasses-y' it would be to increase the coffee sub a little bit, but frankly, if I didn't know to the contrary, I would have guessed there to be a fair bit of molasses (or treacle) in this recipe!

Here's my finished version...and thanks for the recipe!




* Exported from MasterCook *

Muffin/Quickbread -- Treacle Bread, Babs'

Recipe By : Judi IslandGirl,
Serving Size : 20 Preparation Time :0:20
Categories : 00-05G, Breads & Crackers,
Comfort & Family Favourites, Muffins,
Nuts & Seeds, Tested & Ready,
Veggie Ovo-Lacto.

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
DRY:
1 cup Flour Substitute/Bake Mix, Bab's -- 100g, see recipe
80 grams ground almonds -- ~ 3/4 C
30 grams Flax Seed Meal, Bulk, Lifestyles -- ~ 1/3 C
10 grams wheat bran -- ~ 2.5 T
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder -- ~ 7.5 ml
1/8 teaspoon salt -- ~ 0.5 ml
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger -- ~ 7.5 ml
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice -- ~ 1 ml+
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom -- ~ 2.5 ml
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice -- ~ 10 ml
3 tablespoons sweetener, Erythritol -- ~ 45 ml
2 tablespoons sweetener, Splenda granular -- ~ 30 ml
1 tablespoon sweetener, Sugar Twin Brown -- ~ 15 ml
1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum -- ~ 2.5 ml
1/2 teaspoon baking soda -- ~ 2.5 ml
1 tablespoon Cocoa Poweder, Unsweetened, Dark Euro -- ~ 15 ml
1 tablespoon coffee substitute powder -- ~ 15 ml, chicory based
WET:
130 grams sugar free jam, Marmalade -- ~ 1/2 C
4 whole large eggs, veggie-fed free-range -- ~ 200 g
1 teaspoon flavoring, coffee -- ~ 5 ml
65 grams melted butter -- ~ 4 T
130 grams cream cheese -- ~ 1/2 C

Mix dry ingredients well, set aside.
Mix wet ingredients well, stir in the dry ingredients.
Pour into a greased/pansprayed nonstick loaf pan (I used a long narrow loaf pan, 4.5"x11.75" across the top, 1.5L volume).
Bake at 350F/175C about 45m or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Description: "no actual treacle/molasses in it"
Source: "mods to original recipe by Babs (Greannmhar on lowcarb.ca)"
Copyright: "© LowCarb FoodExperts Canada ® / Carbers' Kitchen Counter™"
Start to Finish Time: "1:15"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 154 Calories; 11g Fat (59.3% calories from fat); 11g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 47mg Cholesterol; 168mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 1 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Serving Ideas : toasted & buttered, very yummy

NOTES : 2006-10-06.
Use any nuts desired.
Whole Recipe, net 70g ECC: 3085 Calories; 212g Fat (59.3% calories from fat); 226g Protein; 101g Carbohydrate; 31g Dietary Fiber; 949mg Cholesterol; 3362mg Sodium. Exchanges: 3 1/2 Grain(Starch); 25 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 32 1/2 Fat; 1 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.
Per Serving (if 20 slices), net 3.5g ECC: 154 Calories; 11g Fat (59.3% calories from fat); 11g Protein; 5g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 47mg Cholesterol; 168mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 1 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

I'm glad you enjoyed it Jude. I know there are a lot of ingredients in this and it puts people off trying it.
Now that you mention it, I have been putting extra cocoa in mine for a while. I use about 2 T instead of 1 now to deepen the flavour. I must try putting extra coffee sub in too.
And yes, I sometimes use marmalade when I can't get apricot jam - great minds and all that
Babs

I converted my old betty Crocker Gingerbread cookie recipe over Christmas. Since I can't have any sugar, I used Lundberg's brown rice syrup and upped the ginger a bit (1/2 teaspoon). It worked! Pamela's was the flour substitute and my cookies were excellent. IT didn't quite have the exact "bite" that you get with molasses but my husband liked them. It is pricey in terms of carbs - 36g per 2 tblspns and you use the entire small jar for the 1 1/2 cups of molasses. I was making a ton of cookies (sugar and gingerbread) for my family and a special treat for the food bank. I just couldn't stand not having my own stash. I had one or two in the evening with a gingerbread flavored decaf - YUM. Just enough to satify. Being sugar-free is the low carb trade-off sometimes!