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.
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.
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.
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.
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, for about an hour. Stir it occasionally and use a spoon to scrape off the dregs that accumulate around the sides of 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 minute, then run a finger through it. If it leaves a line that doesn't run back together it's ready.
The longer you leave the syrup simmering, the thicker and stickier the syrup will get.
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 yoghurt.
Add it to water and make your own apple juice from concentrate or use it to add sweetness to dressings and sauces.
Related recipes
Try these other apple recipes and preserving ideas!
Homemade Pure Apple Syrup
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
- 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.
- Pour the apple juice through a cheesecloth into a wide frying pan or saucepan. Bring it to a simmer.
- Let it simmer on medium heat for about an hour stirring occasionally. Scrape off any dregs accumulating not the sides of the pan with a spoon.
- After about an hour the syrup should have reduced by a lot (about ⅚ths) but it will still be still runny. Drop a spoonful onto a cold plate and leave it to sit for a minute. Run a finger through the syrup on the plate. If it leaves a line that doesn't run back into the middle, the syrup is ready.
- 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.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 200 Serving Size: 1 gramsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 29Total Fat: 0.1gUnsaturated Fat: 0gSodium: 1mgFiber: 1.4gSugar: 5.8gProtein: 0.2g
Have you made this pure apple syrup? Tag me and let me know! @home_grown_happiness
Krystal says
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!
Elien says
Hey Krystal, I’ve never tried it with citrus so I’m unsure if it would work sorry!
Michelle says
Can you use store bought unsweetened apple juice?
Elien says
Yup! 🙂
Pat Fair says
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.
Elien says
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!
Tracy M says
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!
Vicki says
How long can you store the apple syrup?