Philosophizing About Food With Francine: Apple Molasses Oatmeal Cookies

by Francine Black

We made a quick trip to Bauman’s for a jug of their incomparable fresh cider and a big box of assorted apples, since I had in mind to have a cookie with a mug of hot spiced cider this evening.

One of our favorite fall cookies is oatmeal with chunks of Granny Smith apple, pecans, cinnamon and dark brown “molassasy” sugar. They are an excellent treat and certainly not the most unhealthy confection.

What is molasses, exactly? It’s the thick, dark syrup remaining when refining white sugar. Crushing the cane produces juice, which is boiled forming sugar crystals that are removed from the remaining juice. The crystals are white sugar and the remaining juice is a thick brown molasses.

Unlike refined sugar, molasses actually contains some vitamins and minerals. Blackstrap, the darkest syrup with most intense flavor, is the most nutritious.

There is some sad history associated with the early sugar cane trade, as you can imagine. The back breaking work was done by African men and women who were cruelly ripped from their homes to slave for their colonial masters. After the abolition of slavery, indentured laborers from India, China and Portugal were brought to the Caribbean to work the fields producing “white gold.”

Today, most of our sugar is imported from Southeast Asia with only a very small amount produced In the American south. The brown sugar we buy is produced by adding various amounts of molasses to our white sugar.

For these cookies, I look for the darkest brown sugar on the shelf as I find that sweet, earthy, slightly bitter flavor to be a wonderful complement to the cinnamon, apple and pecan flavors.

I find, the more I learn about the food we eat, that I have the deepest respect and gratitude for the farmers and laborers who make it all possible!

High in the mountains above Bally, where the dense groves of treetops seem to touch the sky, is Francine Black, Boyertown’s own version of chef Julia Child. Her daily activities reflect the things she most values: family and friends, music, and lovingly prepared food.

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