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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Recipes / Dessert Recipes / Ice Cream Recipes / Homemade Strawberry Syrup Recipe

Homemade Strawberry Syrup Recipe

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Jump to Recipe

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Commercial Strawberry Powder Ingredients
  • Homemade Strawberry Syrup is Best Made With Organic Strawberries
  • Homemade Strawberry Syrup Recipe
  • Many Uses for DIY Strawberry Syrup

homemade strawberry syrup with a glass of milkWhen I was a kid, I really enjoyed a big spoonful of Nesquick Strawberry Powder or Carnation Strawberry Instant Breakfast Mix stirred into a glass of whole milk.

Little did I know how nasty that stuff truly is. My Mom didn’t know either as nutrition information wasn’t required on the label back in the day. She just assumed it was safe and that companies would do the right thing since the product was targeted at children. 

Fat chance!

Commercial Strawberry Powder Ingredients

Check out the ingredients of the Nesquick marketed by Nestle as “an irresistibly delicious, extra nutritious drink for your family” boasting “25% less sugar and specially fortified with added calcium, Vitamin C and other essential vitamins and minerals to help build strong bones”.

Nesquick Strawberry Powder Ingredients: SUGAR, ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, CITRIC ACID, RED 40, SALT, BLUE 1. VITAMINS AND MINERALS: CALCIUM CARBONATE, ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C), ZINC OXIDE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), COPPER GLUCONATE, MANGANESE SULFATE, BIOTIN

“Extra nutritious drink for your family” and “essential vitamins and minerals to help build strong bones?”

Seriously?  You gotta wonder how these companies get away with this deceptive marketing language!

The first three ingredients of Nesquick are (GMO) sugar, artificial flavors, and neurotoxic, MSG laced citric acid! And, the list only goes downhill from there with a pathetic attempt by Nestle to somehow redeem the label with synthetic vitamins, completely indigestible inorganic calcium derived from rocks, and GMO derived, synthetic ascorbic acid masquerading as Vitamin C.

Fortunately, parents are wising up to Big Food’s preference for shareholder profits at the expense of their customers’ health and demonstrating their disdain by refusing to buy these toxic products in increasing numbers.

As a big fan of strawberry flavored milk, strawberry ice cream, strawberry syrup on my pancakes, strawberry yogurt and the list goes on, I learned how to make homemade strawberry syrup to use in all my kitchen creations instead of the artificially flavored strawberry yuckies like Nesquick available at the supermarket.

You won’t believe how fast and easy it is to make a wholesome strawberry syrup yourself!

Homemade Strawberry Syrup is Best Made With Organic Strawberries

The one very strong suggestion I would have if you decide to make homemade strawberry syrup is to go to the extra expense of buying organic strawberries that are preferably not hydroponic.

Organic strawberries that are grown in the dirt have a flavor and taste that is far superior and will guarantee you the best tasting and most flavorful homemade strawberry syrup. Hydroponic strawberries are beautiful looking, but oversized and overloaded with water which will ultimately serve to dilute the flavor of your syrup.

And, since strawberries are one of the most highly sprayed crops, you will also guarantee a toxin free syrup by spending the extra money to go organic.  This is the reason why I have only ever allowed my children to go strawberry picking at an organic farm even though we live in the heart of strawberry country here in Central Florida with conventional strawberry fields literally everywhere at certain times of the year.

Down to brass tacks. How do you make homemade strawberry syrup? With only 4 ingredients, believe it or not! Take that, Nesquick!

homemade strawberry syrup
5 from 2 votes
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Homemade Strawberry Syrup Recipe

Homemade strawberry syrup made with only four all natural ingredients. Perfect for making strawberry flavored milk or drizzling on pancakes!

Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 1 cup
Author Sarah Pope

Ingredients

  • 2 cups strawberries preferably organic and not hydroponic
  • 1 cup filtered water
  • 1 cup maple syrup dark or Grade B
  • 2 tsp strawberry extract

Instructions

  1. Rinse your organic strawberries, slice off the crowns and cut in half.

  2. Place sliced strawberries, filtered water, and sweetener of choice in a medium pot, mix well and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to simmer for a full 10 minutes.

  3. Remove the lid of the pot and mash the strawberries thoroughly in the pot. Return the pot to the heat and simmer for an additional 5 minutes uncovered.

  4. Strain strawberry mixture using a cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer. Return strained liquid to the pot and simmer for 5 minutes more to reduce and thicken the liquid. Watch the pot carefully to ensure it doesn't boil down too quickly and burn the syrup.

  5. Remove pot from heat and stir in optional strawberry extract.

  6. Cool. Refrigerate in a tightly sealed glass jar. Syrup will keep for several weeks refrigerated.

Many Uses for DIY Strawberry Syrup

I love to use my homemade strawberry syrup in a glass of milk as an occasional treat (2 tsp for an 8 oz glass). Note that it will only turn the milk a light pink color as there are obviously no artificial colors enhancing it!

Homemade strawberry syrup also makes a delicious topping for pancakes and waffles or mixed into homemade vanilla ice cream.

Homemade butterscotch, elderberry syrup, or fruit sweetened chocolate sauce work too just to mix things up!

Use your imagination and enjoy in any dish that would benefit from the taste of real strawberries!

 

Related Information

Tart Cherry Juice Benefits

Why to Avoid Pectin in Home Canning

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Category: Condiment & Sauces, Ice Cream Recipes
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (18)

  1. Mark Bolton

    Feb 25, 2017 at 12:51 pm

    Hi Sarah, are you aware that OliveNation Strawberry Extract lists “strawberry essence” as an ingredient on their extract? Do you know if their essence is made from actual strawberries or is it synthetic based, like most essence? Or does it even possibly contain castoreum (beaver castor sac secretions) commonly used in vanilla, raspberry and strawberry flavoring? I have reached out to OliveNation but have not heard back from them yet. I figured you may have done the research already.

    Reply
  2. pam

    Nov 10, 2015 at 3:05 pm

    oh, boy, this looks so easy. i’ll add it in (plain) full fat yogurt

    should work for other berries as well.
    makes one wonder why bother getting commercial stuff. since it’s so easy

    can i add a dash of salt to bring out the juice faster?

    thanks

    Reply
  3. phillip

    Sep 28, 2015 at 3:16 pm

    a fantastic strawberry syrup
    1 pound chopped strawberries
    1c sugar
    1t dry yeast

    coat strawberries in sugar and leave out in at room temp 2 hours, add yeast, mix well and put in a mason jar
    allow to ferment at room temerature as long as you see fit, a week is good. Puree in blender and store in fridge. probably not good for the kids though, as it is a yeast fermentation

    Reply
  4. Debbie

    Sep 28, 2014 at 10:50 pm

    Are any Frontier extracts safe? They are pretty much the only game in my neighborhood.
    Thanks Sarah! I always love your articles.

    Reply
  5. Lynn C.

    Sep 26, 2014 at 4:42 pm

    What is commercial citric acid made from? This strawberry syrup sounds great.

    Reply
    • Sarah TheHealthyHomeEconomist

      Sep 26, 2014 at 7:53 pm

      GMO corn

  6. Lisa

    Sep 26, 2014 at 12:34 pm

    This idea also works well with other berries. We do the same thing with wild picked black caps and wild grapes in the northern part of the country. We pick in the summer and freeze, then just pull some out in the winter to make fresh tasting syrups. I’ve sometimes mixed them and added elderberry and blueberry for the immune benefits.

    Reply
  7. Joy

    Sep 26, 2014 at 9:35 am

    Thanks — this is very good. Chef John did a similar recipe – no extract – but with the addition of a half teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. For my taste, it took it to the next level. Just a suggestion.

    Reply
  8. Sheryl

    Sep 26, 2014 at 8:00 am

    Why do you use maple syrup as a sweetener? Won’t that detract from the flavor of the strawberries?

    Reply
    • Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist

      Sep 26, 2014 at 9:17 pm

      Surprisingly, maple syrup doesn’t seem to alter the taste. The syrup doesn’t taste maple-y at all. Feel free to choose another sweetener if you like … just use a whole one that is unrefined.

  9. Hibber

    Sep 25, 2014 at 11:11 pm

    Wonderful! I was actually wondering if this could be made at home because I wanted a way to flavor raw milk to get my child to consume it! I am definitely going to make this this weekend. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Hibber

      Sep 28, 2014 at 10:44 pm

      I made this, but I pureed the strawberries after the ten minute boil and skipped the straining part. It totally didn’t need the extract!

  10. Jackie

    Sep 25, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    This sounds so delicious, Sarah! Is the strawberry extract that you recommend organic or does it need to be organic?

    Reply
    • Sarah TheHealthyHomeEconomist

      Sep 26, 2014 at 7:34 am

      It is not organic … but the ingredients are good. There is an organic powdered strawberry extract that I prefer but I didn’t link to it because it is really expensive. If you can afford that one, it would be the better way to go. Here’s the link if you want to take a look:

      Whatever you do, don’t buy the Frontier one … bad ingredients!

    • Beth

      Sep 26, 2014 at 9:25 am

      That’s so true about the Frontier strawberry flavor. It can’t even say extract because it appears that there’s no strawberry in it, according to the ingredient list: Sunflower oil, caprylic/caprioc triglycerides, natural flavors.

      Last week I was looking for some coconut extract at my co-op and was dismayed to see that Frontier makes an equally dubious coconut flavoring product containing cottonseed oil and natural flavors.

      I look forward to making raw grassfed strawberry milk and coconut flan with non-toxic extracts!

    • Sarah TheHealthyHomeEconomist

      Sep 26, 2014 at 7:55 pm

      Frontier typically has quality product. Don’t know why the Frontier strawberry flavor has such lousy ingredients and shockingly has no strawberry in it!

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