I hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays! As you can tell Tenille and I have been enjoying time off as well! Something fun that I did during the break was had a big pancake breakfast with most of my family. I made some fruit syrup as a fun treat to top the pancakes. Since I had open cans of Freeze Dried Blueberries, Blackberries, and Raspberries I used those for my flavorings. It took about 20 minutes from start to finish.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup Honeyville’s Freeze Dried Blueberries (not rehydrated)
1/2 cup Honeyville’s Freeze Dried Raspberries (not rehydrated)
2/3 cup Honeyville’s Freeze Dried Blackberries (not rehydrated)
1 cup plus 1/4 cup Berry Juice (*See note in directions)
2 cups Sugar
1 Tb. Lemon Juice
2 and 1/2 Tb. Corn Starch
Directions:
In a bowl measure out Freeze Dried Berries. Cover with cool water to hydrate. Let sit a minute or so to soften. Drain off any remaining water *but reserve 1 and 1/4 cups of it–this is now the Berry Water called for in the recipe. If you don’t get that much just add enough water to get the needed measurement.
In a sauce pan mix together sugar, Lemon Juice, 1 cup Berry Juice, and Berries. Bring to a boil. Try to mash up the berries a bit to get that good flavor. (I used a potato masher but you could use a spoon and smoosh them up against the sides of the pan). In a small container mix together the remaining 1/4 cup of Berry Juice and Corn Starch. Once combined stir into the berry mixture. This will thicken the mixture. Adjust the amount of the Corn Starch/Berry Juice mixture to get the thickness of syrup that you like (add more for thicker syrup, reduce for thinner). Once you’ve got the thickness that you want, take the syrup off the heat. Carefully strain the syrup. (If you desired you could serve it with bits of Berries but I chose not to). It makes about 2 cups.
Even though I didn’t use the actual Berries in the final version of the syrup I didn’t throw them away. I added them to some Raspberry Freezer Jam I had made that was becoming super juicy and not very fruity. Does anyone else have that problem by the time the jar is 1/2 used it gets more juicy and less jammy? I spread that new jam on some toast the next day and it was really good.
My family really liked the syrup and I hope you do to! I think some other fun flavors would be Apricot or Peach. If I was feeling daring I might even try a tropical edition with Mango and Pineapple. What syrup flavors do you enjoy?
Happy Eating!
