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★ Molasses Snaps--no Eggs

Molasses snaps are a brittle cookie made with molasses, flour, sugar, oil or butter, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

★ Molasses Snaps--no Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Cream ½ cup oil or butter with 1 cup sugar and 2 cups flour.

  2. Pour hot molasses over the mixture, add flavoring and additional flour to make a stiff dough, about 6 cups total.

  3. Press dough together lightly and set in a cold place for several hours.

Bake

  1. Roll dough thin, bake in a moderately quick oven, and remove from tins immediately.

  2. Optionally use one cup of butter for richer cakes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

834Calories
14 gProtein
32 gFat
123 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Evora Bucknum Perkins. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the bulk and structure that makes the dough stiff enough to roll thin.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep flavor, and helps the snaps brown as they bake.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the snaps brown and crisp as they bake.
Oil
Supplies fat that gives the dough tenderness and keeps the snaps from being tough.

The step that matters

Remove from tins immediately. Molasses snaps set firm as they cool and stick to hot tins, so they must be lifted out right after baking while still soft enough to release cleanly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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