Have you had enough of strawberries yet?
I just about have, but I had to share this idea I had with you.
This recipe today is sooooo simple, if you have one thing: a juicer.
I made this recipe up after looking at a bunch of on-line recipes. I wanted to create a strawberry syrup to use in strawberry daiquiris this summer… and to drizzle into pancake batter, cake batter, icing, drizzle onto crepes, and use in milkshakes! I haven’t found an organic strawberry syrup that I loved to use in milkshakes for my kids, so with a billion strawberries staring me in the face, I figured this was a great time.
I started reading the recipes… and immediately lost interest. Drain and strain the cooked berries? Puree them and strain them through cheese cloth? Through a mesh strainer? Um… no.
Then I remembered… I have a juicer, one I cherish because it was from a dear friend of mine. I’m *always* looking for more ways to use it. This was perfect!!!!
I threw in all the bruised and mushed strawberries from the rest of our strawberry supply, and juiced them! It came out to about 8 cups of strawberry juice.
I had enough juice to make two sets of these, 8 cups total.
Judging from the on-line recipes, I figured I’d use a 1 : 2 sugar to berry juice ratio.
So I put 8 cups of juice and 4 cups of organic sugar into a pot and brought it to a boil.
This is optional, but I also juiced one organic lemon and put it in the juice as well.
After boiling and stirring over medium-high heat for five minutes, I reduced the heat to a simmer and skimmed off the froth.
That’s IT!!!!
1 part organic sugar + 2 parts strawberry juice + dash of lemon juice = strawberry syrup
I canned a few jars of the syrup in a water bath for later use… and put a few jars straight into the fridge (without canning) to use right away.
The syrup is very very sweet (you may consider using less sugar) but I love it very sweet because one little dash in some ice cubes and water makes an entire blender full of daiquiris!
Also, this is a very very thin syrup. It is PERFECT for drinks — daiquiris and milkshakes…. perfect for cooking, flavoring cake and icing and pancake batter, making specialty coffee drinks… truly anything you would like a strawberry extract for.
If you want a thicker *syrup* for using on desserts and crepes, you may want to add some cornstarch to the mix while boiling it. I think just a few tablespoons would be plenty! I like to keep this thinner because I am loving making strawberry cupcakes, strawberry pancakes, and drinks with it. Yum! Let me know if you give it a try!
Cheers! xoxo