Real Foods very kindly sent me a jar of molasses to review. We do buy various things from them online, but haven’t bought this before, so we were very pleased to get to try it.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, to be honest, but I had a rummage round the web and found inspiration. Since I’ve been diagnosed diabetic, I’ve cut my sugar down a lot, and now find a lot of foods far too sweet. So – home made baked beans!

Into the slow cooker went 500g of dried haricot beans and plenty of water, and I left them in there for about six hours (having switched it on first, of course). The next day, I drained them – reserving the cooking liquid.

Then, in the bottom of the slow cooker, I put about 200g of bacon lardons, and put the beans on top. Then I mixed up three tablespoons of molasses, one of dark brown sugar, two teaspoons of Dijon mustard and a little salt . If you try this at home, beware – it’s incredibly sticky! Next time, I might warm it a little. I poured this over the beans, put another 50g of bacon or so on top, and enough of the reserved cooking liquor to cover, and then about another 2cms worth.

Then we switched it on, and went for a nice long walk over the Humber Bridge. I left them cooking for about six hours, then switched it off and let it stand. Next morning, they looked a bit sloppy, so I decanted them into a big cast iron pot, and left them to bubble slowly without a lid. We ate them with sausages, and they were exceeding nice, although I think they lacked … something. Possibly some herbs, or a squeeze of tomato puree. But we shall be making them again, because they were *so* much nicer than supermarket beans. And I have lots to go in the freezer!

So thanks to Real Foods for the chance to try this. Next up, I shall using the molasses to have a bash at some Finnish bread, and I think it might work very well in gingerbread too.