What to use instead of molasses
It depends entirely on what it's doing in the dish. Here's the job, what else does it, and what to skip.
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Dark bitter sweetness and colour in a bake
Molasses is what is left once the sugar crystals are pulled out, so it carries minerals and burnt notes plus enough acid to react with baking soda.
Dark treacleRan out
1:1 by volume
Almost the same thing under a British name. A touch sweeter and less mineral on the finish.
Sorghum syrupRan out
1:1 by volume
Sour-sweet and lighter in colour with a grassy note. Cookies come out paler and a little softer.
Dark brown sugar loosened with waterRan out
1 cup packed dark brown sugar + 2 tbsp water per 1 cup molasses, minus 1/2 cup of the recipe sugar
Sweeter, much less bitter and it browns less. It contains molasses already, so the flavour stays in the right family.
Date syrupRan out
1:1 by volume, plus 1/4 tsp cream of tartar per cup
Fruity and thick with no bitterness. It carries no acid of its own, which is what the cream of tartar is covering for the soda.
What doesn't work: Honey or maple syrup straight across. Both are sweeter, thinner and near-neutral in acidity, so a gingerbread made with either comes out pale, flat and under-risen wherever soda was leaning on the molasses.
Bitter depth in a savoury sauce or dark bread
The burnt-sugar bitterness balances vinegar and tomato in a barbecue sauce, and it is what gives a rye loaf its near-black crumb.
Blackstrap molassesRan out
3/4 the volume
Far more bitter and mineral and considerably darker. Used at full volume it turns the loaf medicinal.
Strong coffee reduced with brown sugarRan out
1/2 cup brewed coffee reduced to 1/4 cup + 1/2 cup brown sugar per 1 cup molasses
Gets the dark colour and the bitter edge. Thinner than molasses, so pull 2 tbsp of other liquid out of the dough.
Barley malt syrupRan out
1:1 by volume
Malty and much less bitter, and it feeds yeast hard, so the dough proves faster than the recipe times say.
Pomegranate molassesRan out
1:1 by volume, and halve the other acid in the recipe
Sour rather than bitter and clearly fruity. It also lightens the colour of a rye by a couple of shades.
What doesn't work: Caramel or browning sauce for the colour. Browning sauce gets you the shade with no sweetness or acid, and caramel sauce brings dairy and a lot of sugar, so the loaf ends up sweet and pale-tasting under a dark crust.
Sulphured molasses tastes sharp and shows through in a light-coloured bake. Unsulphured is the default on most shelves now.