Andi Oliver’s secret ingredient: blackstrap molasses

The chef and broadcaster on ‘magical molasses’ that turn a meal into an event

I love the name: “blackstrap molasses”. It sounds fabulous, like something I want to wear. Mo-la-sess … it reminds me of sultry, southern, beautiful nights, the music that I love, the blues.

They use it in baking a lot in America, as a sweetener in the south. In the Caribbean, you put it in black cake which we make at Christmas. It has loads of rum and rum-soaked dried fruit and molasses. The molasses gives depth and colour.