This homemade maple flavored pancake syrup is built from white sugar, molasses and water, finished with two extracts. It is a budget-friendly stand-in for real maple syrup, both for pouring over pancakes and waffles and for recipes that call for syrup as an ingredient.
Two details give it body and flavor. First, the sugar mixture is held at a steady rapid boil over medium heat for 15 minutes without turning the burner down, which produces a thick syrup rather than a thin one. Second, molasses alongside the white sugar, plus both vanilla extract and imitation maple flavoring stirred in off the heat, deepens the taste.
The batch makes about 1 3/4 cups, or 7 servings of 1/4 cup. The syrup thickens as it cools and even more in the refrigerator, so warm it briefly before pouring.
Homemade Maple Flavored Pancake Syrup
Ingredients
Method
- Put the sugar, molasses and water in a 2-quart saucepan.
- Set the pan over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes up to a rapid boil, meaning one that keeps bubbling even while being stirred, about 5 minutes. Stirring can stop once it reaches that point.
- Keep the heat at medium, without lowering it, and boil for 15 minutes without stirring. The syrup should look clear and glossy and lightly coat a spoon; it thickens considerably as it cools. If using a candy thermometer, take the pan off the heat early if the syrup reaches 225°F before the 15 minutes are up, since syrup cooked much hotter can turn grainy or set too thick once cold.
- Move the pan off the burner and leave the syrup undisturbed for 10 minutes.
- Add both flavorings, the maple and the vanilla, and stir them through.
- Serve the syrup warm, or cool it to room temperature, then transfer it to a jar with a tight lid and refrigerate it.
