| |

Homemade Apple Syrup – Made From Pure Apples

Delicious and sticky homemade apple syrup. This is a great way to preserve excess apples.

Homemade apple syrup makes a perfect drizzle over pancakes and waffles. It is great when mixed into drinks or used in sauces. This is an easy apple syrup recipe to use up your apple glut.

apple syrup being poured into a spoon with a red apple sitting on a wooden table

Pure Apple Syrup

That’s really all that’s in here! Pure apples. They are juiced and simmered down until a lot of the water has evaporated. What’s left is sticky concentrated, sweet apple syrup that’s a healthy alternative to refined sugar.

a birds eye view of apple syrup on a wooden bench with 3 red apples

What Apples to Use

Calling all unloved apples! All the bird-pecked apples, the bug-bitten, and the ugly apples. This simple, sugar-free apple syrup is a brilliant way to use them.

Though most apples can be used, the largest and sweetest apples will make the sweetest syrup. Cooking apples won’t make as sweet of a syrup.

If you use apples that are under-ripe and very starchy, sometimes the syrup can become more like jelly once cooled. It’s best to use ripe, sweet apples.

birds eye view of a white basket of red apples sitting on a wooden table

How To Make Syrup from Apples – The Method

First, you’ll need apple juice which is made with a fruit juicer. 3kg of apples makes approximately 1.5litres of apple juice. Once this is simmered down it makes around 200ml pure apple syrup.

If you’ve made fresh juice with a juicer before, you know that there is a lot of foam that forms on the top. Let it sit for 5 minutes so the foam splits from the juice, then use a spoon to scoop it off.

two jugs of apple juice, with apple foam at the top and a juicer in the background

Pour the juice through a cheesecloth into a wide frypan or saucepan. The cheesecloth is going to hold back more of the foam. Don’t worry if some get into the pan though. As it cooks, later on, the foam will accumulate around the sides of the pan when you make the syrup so you can scrape the bits you missed off then.

The wider the pan you use, the faster you will have syrup as more water can evaporate. If you juice a lot, you can divide it over two saucepans to speed things up. I use a cast iron pan which holds the heat really well.

Bring the juice to a simmer and keep it simmering, on medium heat. Stir it occasionally and use a spoon to scrape off the dregs that accumulate around the sides of the pan.

Apple juice being reduced in a frying pan on oven elements with a wooden spoon on the pan

Simmering the Syrup

After about an hour the juice should have reduced considerably. Pop a plate in the freezer for 5 minutes to test if the syrup is ready.

Pour a dollop of syrup onto the cold plate and leave it for a few seconds then run a finger through it. If it leaves a line that doesn’t run back right away the syrup is ready.

The longer you leave the syrup simmering, the thicker and stickier the syrup will get. Don’t leave it too long or it will become too thick.

a red pan of syrup simmering with a wooden spoon balanced on the pan

Storing Apple Syrup

The apple syrup can be poured into a clean bottle and stored in the refrigerator for up to three months. Alternatively, it can be frozen by pouring it into ice cube molds and freezing it in small portion sizes.

Use for Apple Syrup

Homemade apple syrup and other natural syrups make a great refined sugar replacement. Drizzle it over sourdough pancakes or homemade waffles, or swirl it through yogurt.

Add it to water and make your own apple juice from concentrate or use it to add sweetness to dressings and sauces.

homemade apple syrup in a bottle and a spoon part filled with syrup on a wooden table with 3 red apples

Related recipes

Try these other apple recipes and preserving ideas!

apple syrup

Homemade Pure Apple Syrup

Yield: 200 ml
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

Delicious, sticky syrup made from pure apples.

Makes approximately 200ml syrup.

Ingredients

  • Equipment - A fruit juicer
  • 3 kg apples - A sweet variety will make the sweetest syrup.

Instructions

  1. Using a juicer, juice the apples. Allow the juice to sit for 5 minutes so the foam rises to the top. Scrape off as much of the foam as you can so you are left with only juice.
  2. Pour the apple juice through a cheesecloth into a wide frying pan or saucepan. Bring it to a simmer.
  3. Let it simmer on low-medium heat, stirring occasionally. Scrape off any dregs accumulating on the sides of the pan with a spoon.
  4. After about an hour or two the syrup should have reduced by a lot (about 5/6ths) but it should still be still runny. The exact timings of this will depend on the number of apples and the saucepan used.
  5. Drop a spoonful onto a cold plate and leave it to sit for a few seconds. Run a finger through the syrup on the plate. If it leaves a line that doesn't run back right away, the syrup is ready.*
  6. Leave the syrup to cool for 10 minutes then pour it into a clean jar. The syrup can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three months. Alternatively, it can be frozen. You can also pour it into ice cube molds and freeze it in small portion sizes.

Notes

*Don't let the syrup reduce for too long or it will become too thick (or become apple toffee!)

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate, a Mighty Ape affiliate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 200 Serving Size: 1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 29Total Fat: 0.1gUnsaturated Fat: 0gSodium: 1mgFiber: 1.4gSugar: 5.8gProtein: 0.2g

Sharing is caring!

Similar Posts

20 Comments

  1. I love this! I wondered if you’d tried it with other fruits? I have a bunch of citrus I don’t have a use for and love the idea of reducing it down to preserve it as syrup without sugar – do you think it would work? Thanks!

  2. I have made apple cider caramels for the last couple of years, using apple cider. I make ALOT and gift them during the holidays. The cider is reduced to a syrup by boiling. 8 cups of cider reduced to about one cup of concentrated syrup, then cooked to specified temperature with other ingredients.

    It appears there may be a supply issue this year. I typically have purchased from 2 sources. I bought 1 gallon from one of the sources last week. It was all they had available. They had received a smaller shipment than anticipated and it sold out quickly. ANYWAY…I boiled down 8 cups to about one cup yesterday. But that one cup does not resemble the consistency of syrup in any fashion; a minimal change in consistency from the original 8 cups. I’m wondering whether you have ever experienced this? Now I am left to wonder whether to cut my losses and toss this, or continue the process and possibly waste a number of other ingredients. Any insight you can provide would be appreciated.

    1. Hey Pat, I’ve not had this happen before so I can’t give you any insight on why this one didn’t become syrupy!

  3. I was using fresh apple juice with fresh grated ginger and cinnamon to dip apple slices before dehydrating them (YUM!) so at the end I decided to cook down the juice, ginger and cinnamon in a crock pot slowly over several hours and ends up with a dark caramel colored syrup with ZIP! to it.

    I am about to can one of my last batches of apples this year and I am thinking of making apple pie filling using the apple ginger syrup as the thickener/sweetener for the filling recipe for canning. I won’t know the results for sure until we crack open a jar and make it into a pie. Wish me luck!

    1. Months late, but I did the exact same thing and transferred it into a bowl while it was still hot and mixed it with room temperature water and it was perfect.

  4. Have tried this today, but despite simmering for hours and reducing the juice to a fraction of the original quantity, there is no change in consistency, and no suggestion of ‘syrup’ qualities. I dont want to waste the juice, so I am going to look for a recipe with added sugar.

    1. Hey Jo, I think I may know why your syrup didn’t turn out.
      Apples have varying sugar contents, this is very important for the making of candies and syrups from the juice, if an apple has very low sugar content it won’t matter how much you reduce it, there won’t be enough sugar there, so going for an apple like honey crisp or Galla apples is a good idea. But, if you are in a pinch and know you won’t be able to get Special apples for the project, you can simple add sugar to your juice, this can be any sugar other than artificial sweeteners( no. I have not tried that type of sweetener so maybe they would work, I’ve just never seen it done)
      Hopefully this helped

  5. Well, I almost gave up when I simmered the juice away for what seemed like ages, and although it reduced, the consistency was still thin and not syrupy. I gave it one more go at boiling/ simmering, and hey presto, lovely appley syrupy gorgeousness. Thank you! To others trying this – keep going, you will get there!

  6. I have puréed my apples (didn’t have a juicer). I now have a lot of pulp. Very small amount of juice! Two questions: what do I do with the pulp—seem a waist to toss! Should I simply add water and honey to stretch the juice I have? Help!!

    1. Hey Jean, few solutions here,
      For the purée, if you like yogurt it goes very well on top of that with granola, you can use it as a fertilizer or add it to dog food (check the apples used, not sure on the toxicity of some apples to dogs) or use them in recipes that require apple bits
      So second thing here, if you don’t have a juicer you can do it by hand, you need a grater and some type of cloth, preferably a cheese cloth, but whatever you have on hand as long as it can let water seep through is fine, you want to grate the apples and then place the grated apples on the cloth, and squeeze over a bowl, that should produce a good amount of juice and you can do that with your purée apples too,
      Happy cooking!

  7. I would like to make apple syrup for canning from my juiced apples. Have a recipe?
    Thank you!

  8. I am going to try this. When I use apples I plop all the peelings and cores into a pan and cook it down until I come up with a beautiful pink broth. I’m storing that broth in a freezer bag and was curious if I could take it to another level or use. I am hoping this will work. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *