You can make pancake syrups at home with only a few ingredients, and you can bet it’ll turn out a real success.
The advantage to making the syrup at home as opposed to buying it from the store is that you can experiment a lot. Using molasses, honey or maple syrup as the base ingredient, you can create a variety of toppings for your pancakes that are all-natural, smooth and flavorful.
- You can add butter to hot syrup to smoothen the result and butter will also add a glossy finish to the syrup.
- You can flavor the syrups with cinnamon, orange zest, pure vanilla extract or even use blueberries and raspberries to make a fresh fruits syrup that can be enjoyed with pancakes, but also with yogurt, ice cream, sundaes and the likes.
- You can even can fruit syrups and store them for extended periods.
There is no doubt about it: homemade pancake syrups are the healthiest and a much more attractive option to store-bought pancake syrups.
But, if for whatever reason, you prefer to buy the syrups, know that some or most of the options out there are not exactly the best.
For example, if you are buying maple syrup to make your own pancake syrup at home, you need to make sure it’s the real deal and not maple-flavored syrup that you’re getting.
Likewise, make sure to get actual pancake syrup and none of that high fructose corn syrup that physicians say it’s bad for your health: bad because it’s actually sweeter than sugar and because it is chemically processed and certain chemical components and residues in high fructose corn syrup bring about health problems in the long run.
Having had those issues covered, here are three good options for pancake syrups. The actual and not the corn syrups.
Blackberry Patch 3 Ingredients Syrups
It’s all there in the name: what the producer is offering is a range of syrups made with three ingredients to which spices are added to various options. The ingredients vary slightly according to flavor, but they are all natural and homemade in small batches. Some options:
3 Ingredient Blueberry Syrup: ripe blueberries; pure cane sugar; lemon juice.
3 Ingredient Pumpkin Spice: pumpkin; pure care sugar; spices.
3 Ingredient Apple Butter Sugar: Apples; pure cane sugar; lemon juice + spices.
What’s to love: not overly sweet, tastes fresh, ultra-thick.
Wood’s Cinnamon Cider Syrup
For everyone who loves cider and real maple syrup, this is a hit. It combines two of the manufacturer’s staple products – boiled cider and maple syrup which they have been producing since 1882, respectively since the early 1800s. Other available options:
Wood’s Cider Syrup: boiled cider; maple syrup.
Wood’s Boiled Cider: concentrated cider made from fresh, sweet apples.
Wood’s Cider Jelly: made from apple cider.
What’s to love: all-natural, flavorful, dense and concentrated.
Kodiak Berry Syrups
These gourmet syrups are available at Costco. Mostly known for the Kodiak Cakes, Kodiak started producing natural syrups using no artificial colors, preservatives or flavorings, although they do use xanthan gum, a thickener known to cause some side effects when consumed in excess. Options:
Marion berries Syrup: marionberries; cane sugar; mountain spring water; xanthan gum; citric acid.
Raspberries Syrup: raspberries; cane sugar; mountain spring water; xanthan gum; citric acid.
Mountain Berries Syrup: blueberries; blackberries; huckleberries; serviceberries; cane sugar; mountain spring water; xanthan gum; citric acid.
What’s to love: handmade, flavorful, and naturally gluten-free.