Post by Sheila on Jul 9, 2013 1:29:40 GMT -5
Simple and Cheap Strawberry Syrup
1 gallon of strawberry tops (or 1/2 gallon whole strawberries)
1 fresh lemon (or 3-4 Tbsp. bottled lemon juice)
2 cups sugar (organic evaporated cane juice works great as well)
a large bowl
a blender
a metal sieve
Place your fruit scraps (or fruit) in a large bowl and squeeze or drizzle the lemon juice over the fruit. If you are using fresh lemon, leave the lemon halves in the bowl with the strawberries.Next, pour your sugar over the strawberries and mix them around a bit so the sugar coats the fruit well.This is what it will look like after you’ve mixed it around. Cover and store in the refrigerator overnight. This process is called “macerating”.In the morning, your macerated fruit looks like this. The sugar has melted and created a syrupy liquid in the bowl.You can see that there is plenty of liquid. You can taste it at this point, I’ll wait. It really is delicious!Remove the lemon peels and transfer everything else into your blender. I like to use a rubber spatula to get all the macerated strawberry goodness out of the bowl and into my blender. Blend on high until completely smooth.Place your sieve into the bowl you were using earlier and transfer the contents of your blender into the sieve. Let the blended mixture strain until it stops dripping. At that point you will need to help it strain through your sieve. I use a spoon to scrape the inside of the sieve to remove anything that might be blocking the holes. I push down with the spoon to strain out as much of the syrup as I can.i usually end up with very little waste, and most of this, as you can tell from the color, is blended strawberry leaves. You can compost this.Transfer all of your lovely syrup into a container, cover tightly, and store in the refrigerator. Around our house, we often store liquids in mason jars because they fit well into the door of our refrigerator and take up little space. We use this type of lid on our mason jars, rather than canning lids and bands. Lasts about 2 weeks in the refrigerator.We use our syrup to flavor lemonade (make sure to cut back on the sugar if you use it this way), iced tea, and kombucha. It would be wonderful over ice cream and pancakes too, though we haven’t tried it this way. Try freezing anything you don’t think you would use in two weeks, perhaps in ice cube trays. This would allow you to easily add the sweetener to your lemonade or iced tea. I would thaw before using it to flavor my kombucha, though!
1 gallon of strawberry tops (or 1/2 gallon whole strawberries)
1 fresh lemon (or 3-4 Tbsp. bottled lemon juice)
2 cups sugar (organic evaporated cane juice works great as well)
a large bowl
a blender
a metal sieve
Place your fruit scraps (or fruit) in a large bowl and squeeze or drizzle the lemon juice over the fruit. If you are using fresh lemon, leave the lemon halves in the bowl with the strawberries.Next, pour your sugar over the strawberries and mix them around a bit so the sugar coats the fruit well.This is what it will look like after you’ve mixed it around. Cover and store in the refrigerator overnight. This process is called “macerating”.In the morning, your macerated fruit looks like this. The sugar has melted and created a syrupy liquid in the bowl.You can see that there is plenty of liquid. You can taste it at this point, I’ll wait. It really is delicious!Remove the lemon peels and transfer everything else into your blender. I like to use a rubber spatula to get all the macerated strawberry goodness out of the bowl and into my blender. Blend on high until completely smooth.Place your sieve into the bowl you were using earlier and transfer the contents of your blender into the sieve. Let the blended mixture strain until it stops dripping. At that point you will need to help it strain through your sieve. I use a spoon to scrape the inside of the sieve to remove anything that might be blocking the holes. I push down with the spoon to strain out as much of the syrup as I can.i usually end up with very little waste, and most of this, as you can tell from the color, is blended strawberry leaves. You can compost this.Transfer all of your lovely syrup into a container, cover tightly, and store in the refrigerator. Around our house, we often store liquids in mason jars because they fit well into the door of our refrigerator and take up little space. We use this type of lid on our mason jars, rather than canning lids and bands. Lasts about 2 weeks in the refrigerator.We use our syrup to flavor lemonade (make sure to cut back on the sugar if you use it this way), iced tea, and kombucha. It would be wonderful over ice cream and pancakes too, though we haven’t tried it this way. Try freezing anything you don’t think you would use in two weeks, perhaps in ice cube trays. This would allow you to easily add the sweetener to your lemonade or iced tea. I would thaw before using it to flavor my kombucha, though!
