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Recipes with sugarcane molasses

3 recipes that use sugarcane molasses, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Queijo coalho assado, takes 15 minutes. It is most often cooked with aniseed, bicarbonate of soda and butter.

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Bolo de mel da Madeira

Madeiran families bake bolo de mel on 8 December so it can mellow in time for Christmas, and a well-wrapped one is said to keep until the following year. It is dense, almost black and fragrant with cinnamon, clove and aniseed, sweetened with mel de cana, the island's sugarcane molasses, and studded with walnuts, almonds and candied peel. Tradition says it should be broken by hand, never cut with a knife. Many old recipes use some lard; this one uses butter only. Chef's tip: wrap it in foil and wait at least a week before eating; the spices and molasses soften and blend as it rests.

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Broas de mel

Alongside bolo de mel, every Madeiran Christmas table has a tin of broas de mel: small, round, dark biscuits made with the same sugarcane molasses and spices, crisp at the edge and slightly chewy inside. Children are given them when they go door to door on the Missas do Parto mornings before Christmas, and they are good dunked in coffee or tea. Chef's tip: chill the dough for half an hour before shaping; molasses dough is sticky when warm.

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Queijo coalho assado

Along the beaches of Recife, Porto de Galinhas and Fortaleza, vendors walk the sand with a small charcoal brazier, toasting sticks of coalho cheese to order. Coalho is a firm, salty curd cheese that holds its shape over the heat, so it browns and blisters on the outside while the inside turns soft and squeaky. Buyers choose it plain, sprinkled with dried oregano, or drizzled with dark sugarcane molasses for a salty-sweet bite. At home it works on a barbecue, a ridged griddle or under a hot grill, and makes a good starter for a churrasco. Most coalho is made with animal rennet, so look for one labelled vegetarian or with microbial rennet, or use a vegetarian halloumi. Everyone's first error is turning the cheese too soon: it tears and sticks until a crust has formed. Chef's tip: pat the sticks dry and brush the grill, not the cheese, with oil, so the crust forms quickly and releases cleanly.

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Goes well with sugarcane molasses