Carob Molasses substitute

Best substitute

Date syrup (silan)

Use the same amount as the carob molasses you are replacing

Best for mixing with tahini

Close match

Date syrup is the best substitute at 1:1, and stirring a quarter teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder into every two tablespoons gets you remarkably close to carob's roasted edge. Grape pekmez also works 1:1 if you have it, though it tastes of raisins rather than cocoa and toffee. Dark molasses will do in baking at three-quarters the amount, thinned with a little water, but it is far more bitter. Carob molasses is doing three jobs at once: sweetness, a dark roasted-cocoa flavour, and thick syrupy body that clings to a spoon or to tahini, so the swap needs to be a thick syrup and not a thin one.

Other carob molasses substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Grape molasses (pekmez) or Italian saba
Different taste
Use the same amount
The same style of traditional boiled-down fruit syrup, made from grape juice rather than carob pods, and used in exactly the same ways.
What changes
Best for
tahini and pekmez, breakfast drizzling, baking, sweetening winter drinks, glazes for lamb or chicken
The body and behaviour are spot on. The flavour swings from carob's roasted cocoa-and-toffee register to raisin and dried fig, with a faint tartness carob does not have, so a nut-heavy dessert tastes brighter and less chocolaty. Nothing about it reads as wrong, just as a different pekmez. Italian saba and vincotto are effectively the same product; avoid vincotto blended with vinegar, which is a condiment.
3Dark molasses or black treacle
Different taste
Use ¾ the amount, thinned with 1 tsp water for every tablespoon of carob molasses
A workable pantry swap that gets the colour, the mineral depth and the clinging texture right.
What changes
Best for
baking and gingerbread-style cakes, marinades and barbecue glazes, colouring a batter, savoury sauces
Much more bitter and assertive than carob molasses, with a sulphurous edge that carob does not have, so at a straight 1:1 it takes over the dish. Use three-quarters the amount, thin it, and add a teaspoon of honey or sugar syrup to restore the fruit sweetness. Skip blackstrap entirely, which is harshly bitter, and do not use molasses for the classic tahini pairing, where it tastes medicinal against plain sesame.
4Maple syrup or honey
Taste and texture differ
¾ the amount
Available everywhere, right sweetness range, wrong texture and wrong flavour direction.
What changes
Best for
drizzling on yogurt or pancakes, quick sweetening, smoothies, salad dressings
Both are noticeably sweeter and much thinner than carob molasses, so they run off a spoon and off bread instead of sitting there, and they taste woody or floral rather than roasted. Use three-quarters the volume so the dish is not oversweet, and stir in a quarter teaspoon of cocoa powder plus a pinch of salt per two tablespoons if you want the dark note back. Honey seizes into stiff clumps when whisked into cold tahini, so warm it slightly first.
5Sorghum syrup
Different taste
Use the same amount
Boiled-down sorghum cane juice with a thick body and a sweet-sour, faintly earthy taste that lands somewhere between molasses and honey.
What changes
Best for
baking, drizzling, glazes, spreading on bread with butter
A genuinely good structural stand-in: it pours and clings almost exactly like carob molasses. It is tangier and grassier, with none of the roasted cocoa note and a slight sourness at the finish, so a sweet dessert tastes a shade sharper. Popular in the American South and easier to find there than carob molasses.
6Homemade blend, when the flavour matters most
Close match
Use ¼ cup date syrup + 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa + ⅛ tsp salt for every ¼ cup carob molasses
There is no way to make real carob molasses without carob pods, so this is a deliberate imitation of its flavour profile rather than a recipe for it.
What changes
Best for
tahini and carob molasses, desserts where carob is the point, drizzling, ice cream sauce
Whisk the cocoa into slightly warmed date syrup so it dissolves rather than sitting in specks, then add the salt. The result is dark, thick and roasted, and it is close enough that a tahini pairing tastes right. It will still be sweeter than the real thing and it will lack carob's very faint tannic grip, which is worth knowing but not worth worrying about.

What is Carob Molasses?

Carob Molasses is Carob molasses, sold in Turkey as keciboynuzu pekmezi or harnup pekmezi and across the Levant as dibs kharrub, is a thick, almost black syrup made by boiling down the pulp of carob pods with water and nothing else.

Cooking tips

Carob molasses is not carob powder. The powder is roasted ground carob pod used as a cocoa alternative in baking; the molasses is a liquid sweetener. Swapping one for the other does not work in either direction, and a recipe calling for carob molasses wants the syrup.
It is stiff straight from the jar, stiffer than most molasses. Stand the jar in warm water for a few minutes or warm the spoonful gently before measuring, and oil the measuring spoon so the syrup slides out instead of clinging to it.
The classic pairing is tahini with carob molasses, eaten with bread. Start at roughly two parts tahini to one part syrup and add more syrup to taste. Whisk it in gradually: the mixture stiffens alarmingly at first and then loosens into a glossy paste, so do not panic and add liquid.
It is less sweet than sugar or maple syrup, so if you replace it with either of those you should cut the amount and often cut sugar elsewhere in the recipe too. Going the other direction, replacing honey with carob molasses, you may need slightly more.
It burns quickly in a glaze because of its sugars. Brush it on roast meat or vegetables in the last ten minutes rather than at the start, or thin it with a little water and lemon juice first.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave carob molasses out?

If it is a drizzle over yogurt, ice cream or bread, yes, and nothing breaks. In baking you cannot simply omit it, because it is contributing both liquid and sweetness: replace it by volume with date syrup, grape pekmez, honey or maple syrup instead. In tahini and carob molasses, the syrup is half the dish, so leaving it out leaves you with plain tahini.

What is carob molasses called on the label?

Turkish jars say keciboynuzu pekmezi or harnup pekmezi, sometimes translated as carob syrup or carob extract. Levantine and Arabic labels say dibs kharrub or dibs el kharoub. Cypriot bottles are often sold as carob syrup or Cyprus black gold. They are all the same product: boiled-down carob pod extract with no added sugar.

Is date syrup or pomegranate molasses the better substitute?

Date syrup, without question. Pomegranate molasses is a sour condiment rather than a sweetener, and it is far more acidic, so at 1:1 it makes a dessert taste tart and unbalanced. If pomegranate molasses is genuinely all you have, use half of it and make up the rest with honey or sugar syrup, and accept a distinctly tangier result.

Does carob molasses taste like chocolate?

Not really, though it shares a register with it. It tastes of dark caramel and roasted pod, with a cocoa-adjacent bitterness at the back and a lingering earthy sweetness. That is why cocoa powder is the useful trick for faking it, and also why carob molasses works so well in nut and chocolate desserts and reads as slightly out of place in delicate fruit ones.

Is it a sugar-free or diet sweetener?

No. Carob molasses is a concentrated fruit syrup, so it is mostly natural sugars and is calorie-dense like any other molasses or honey. It is traditionally eaten in Turkey and the Levant as a nourishing winter food, often with tahini, and it does contain minerals, but treat it as a sweetener in your recipe rather than as a health supplement.

Related substitutes

More sweeteners substitutes

Carob Molasses substitute

Other carob molasses substitutes

2Grape molasses (pekmez) or Italian saba

3Dark molasses or black treacle

4Maple syrup or honey

5Sorghum syrup

6Homemade blend, when the flavour matters most