Easy Blackberry Syrup
If you have a bumper crop of blackberries, blackberry syrup should be one of your go-to ways to use them! It stores longer than the berries themselves, is easy to make, and has a variety of uses.
How to make blackberry syrup:
It’s a pretty easy process that involves only a few ingredients. I use blackberries I run through a juicer, but you can also get the juice by cooking the berries with a tiny bit of water (just enough to help them start to cook without burning) on the stovetop, then straining. You’ll have seedless, homemade, blackberry syrup in no time!
Once you have the juice on hand, you cook it with sugar to thicken it and extend the shelf life. I use maple syrup, but you can use the same amount of granulated sugar if you want a more traditional taste. For this specific recipe, you can even swap it with a 1:1 ratio. You just cook it down until some of the water evaporates so it thickens into a syrup consistency.
*Optional- If you want the cooking part to go faster or you want a thick syrup, you can add cornstarch. Just dissolve 1 Tablespoon cornstarch into 1 teaspoon of cold water and add it to the hot syrup mixture on the stove and continue cooking. Pretty quickly you’ll see the syrup thicken up and you can remove it from the heat.
After removing it from the heat, I add a few flavor enhancers. Just a touch of lemon or lime juice, a bit of vanilla extract, and a tiny pinch of salt. These are all optional. Traditional fruit syrups just have the fruit and sugar. I like the complexity of flavor I get from my citrus and vanilla.
What to do with blackberry syrup:
So you have this delicious syrup, now what? I’m sure you know you can put it on the traditional things like pancakes, waffles and crepes. But there’s actually a whole slew of ways you can use just about any fruit syrup. Try some of these ideas:
-Spoon it onto ice cream.
-Use it to sweeten and flavor lemonade for a unique and delicious summertime drink.
-Sweeten tea (hot or cold) with it. I live in the south. Sweet tea is a thing. This is southern sweet tea elevated!
-Glaze cheesecakes, chocolate cake, and other desserts with it.
-Dip fruit into it.
-Use it to flavor a margarita, some champagne, or sangria. If this Idea appeals to you, you might like this site that has a BUNCH of cocktail and drink recipes with blackberry syrup.
-Add it to 7up, sparkling water, or club soda for a homemade soda/Italian soda.
-Use it in hot cocoa
-Use it as a snow cone syrup
-Mix it into plain yogurt to make blackberry yogurt or drizzle it over the top of yogurt parfaits.
-Swirl it into oatmeal for a different type of morning wake up.
-Use it in place of regular syrup when you make homemade granola.
-Create a blackberry mocha or use it as a sweetener in your regular coffee (hot or iced). And if you like flavored mochas you might like this recipe for a pomegranate mocha.
-Add it to a marinade. I think it’s especially good with chicken or white fish.
-Mix it into a salad dressing. You probably want to cut out other sweeteners in your recipe if you do this.
-Use it on a poke cake. You know the kind, you bake a cake, poke holes all over it with a skewer, and then pour the syrup over the top so it works down into the cake. This is especially good with the thicker syrup.
-Make a fruited sweet and sour sauce. Replace some of the sweeter liquid in your recipe with the syrup.
-Dribble it over grilled fruit for a healthier dessert.
-Add a bit to whipped cream or cool whip.
Is there something you would do with blackberry syrup that I haven’t listed above? Tell me in the comments! I’d LOVE to know!
If you have even more blackberries you might be interested in this collection of blackberry recipes I found online!
You might also like my free broccoli recipe download!
Looking for healthy produce recipes? Try my frozen mocha with hidden greens!
| Servings |
cup
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- 1 cup blackberry juice from either juiced blackberries or cooked and strained berries
- 1/3 cup maple syrup you can replace this with granulated sugar if you like
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon or lime juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 small pinch salt
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon cold water
Ingredients
Optional
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Rate this recipe!
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- Combine the blackberry juice and syrup or sugar in a medium saucepan and cook over medium high heat, stirring often to keep from burning, until it reduces down and has the syrup consistency you like. If you are using the cornstarch method, dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water and add it to the juice mixture as soon as the juice is bubbling.
- Once it starts to boil, you'll want to stir constantly to keep it from burning. Keep cooking and stirring until it boils down enough to get syrupy. It will thicken slightly as it cools so I like to err on the side of a thin syrup. At this point it has usually reduced by about half if you aren't using cornstarch.
- Remove from heat. Add in the citrus juice, vanilla, and tiny pinch of salt and stir until well combined.
- Let it cool and use as desired. This keeps in the fridge for a couple of weeks. You can freeze it if you didn't use the cornstarch.
this is so timely, right when I have some extra black berries! love all the suggestions too
Yes! The middle of blackberry season can be hard to keep up with. Thanks for stopping by!
This looks so good! Wish I could grow blackberries this far north.
This looks Devine!! Thank you for the recipe 🙂
You are welcome! Thanks for stopping by!
I just put this on my to do list for next week! Can’t wait to try it 😍
My mom always gives us gobs of blackberries every summer. So glad to have this recipe! Thanks!
I love blackberries! Yummy! I never thought to try it in hot cocoa, now ai am curious!