Homemade Pancake Syrup

A few weeks ago in a Friday Fill-In I wrote down my intention to make homemade pancake syrup. Shortly after that, Michelle at Scribbit posted her recipe for homemade pancake syrup. She got a lot of comments from die hard Real Maple Syrup advocates: It’s the only true pancake syrup. Anything else is a pale imitation. How can you pass off the fake stuff to your family. Blah, blah, blah…

I grew up on homemade pancake syrup. My mom’s recipe is the same one that Michelle posted:

2 cups of white sugar
1 cup of water
1 tsp. of flavoring

Stir together in 2 qt. sauce pan. Bring to a boil. Cook until clear and slightly thickened.

The difference in the recipes is that my mom usually made Cinnamon Syrup, adding 1 tsp. of cinnamon to the recipe instead of maple flavoring. I loved Cinnamon Syrup.

Then I grew up, moved away from home, and eventually married a Real Maple Syrup Man from Michigan, Home of Real Maple Syrup. I have never been a fan of the flavor of maple anything. When we were on our honeymoon, he bought me a Real Treat of maple sugar candy. Um…wow. Sugar that tasted like maple. Two strikes and we were only on our honeymoon! (I am happy to say he has since reformed and now knows to give chocolate. Dark chocolate. Our marriage survives another day.)

While our daughter was growing up, they spent many a happy hour tramping out in the woods, tapping maple trees, gathering sap, giving tree tapping lessons to local home schooling families, and endless hours and millions of kilowatts of electricity boiling down gallons of sap into little teeny tiny jars of syrup. The ratio was about 20:1. That’s a lot of boiling. Since my daughter grew up on the stuff, she thinks it is the only true pancake syrup. Me? I’m still not convinced.

So, now that she is far away at college and my husband is diabetic and uses sugar-free pancake syrup, (Smuckers is his brand of choice) I have decided to go back to my roots and make homemade Cinnamon Syrup, which is what I (finally) did this weekend. Since I am not a maple fan, I think next time I will experiment with some different flavors. I have almond flavoring on hand. I wonder how that would taste? I will have to see what else is in the baking aisle at the local grocery store.

Oh, and that syrup I said I was making on January 17? I made that today. And the letter I said I was writing on the 18th? I finally got it done on Sunday. Yup, that's the way it goes around here.