Homemade Apple Syrup Made From Pure Apples
This simple homemade apple syrup is made from nothing but apples. It’s sticky, sweet, and rich in apple flavour. The perfect way to use up an abundance of fruit and turn it into something yummy! It’s delicious drizzled over pancakes or waffles, swirled through yogurt, stirred into sparkling water, or added to sauces and marinades
Pure apple syrup
That’s really all that’s in here, just apples. The juice is slowly simmered down until most of the water evaporates, leaving behind a thick, glossy syrup full of natural sweetness.
It’s a great alternative to refined sugar, though keep in mind it’s still concentrated natural sugar. It’s a whole-food sweetener, with all the flavour of fresh apples captured in every spoonful.
What apples to use
Any sweet apple variety works well, but the sweeter the apple, the sweeter the syrup. Cooking apples tend to be more tart, so they’ll make a sharper syrup.
Under-ripe, starchy apples can make the syrup gel once cooled because of their high natural pectin content so for a smooth, pourable syrup, ripe apples are best.
How to make syrup from apples
- You’ll need apple juice to start. If you have a juicer, that’s the easiest way. About 3 kg of apples makes roughly 1.5 L of juice, which reduces to about 200 ml of syrup.
- If you’re juicing, you’ll notice foam forming on top of the juice; that’s normal. Let the juice sit for five minutes, then skim the foam off with a spoon. Pour the juice through cheesecloth to remove any remaining pulp or foam.
- Pour the juice into a saucepan. The wider the pan, the faster your syrup will reduce, since there’s more surface area for water to evaporate. If you have a large batch, you can split it between two pans to speed things up.
- Bring the juice to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Stir it occasionally and scrape any foam or residue from the sides. The juice will start out pale and cloudy, gradually darkening and thickening as it cooks.
- After about an hour, it should be noticeably reduced
Test if it’s read
To test if it’s ready, place a small plate in the freezer for a few minutes. Drop a spoonful of syrup onto the cold plate and let it sit for a few seconds. Run your finger through it. If it leaves a clear line that doesn’t run back together immediately, it’s done.
For a thermometer reading, the syrup will be ready at 104-106 °C (220-223 °F). The longer you simmer, the thicker it becomes, but don’t leave it too long, or it can turn into apple toffee.
Storing apple syrup
Let the syrup cool for about 10 minutes, then pour it into sterilised jars or bottles while still warm.
Keep it refrigerated for up to 3 months, or freeze in ice cube trays for easy single portions. Once frozen, pop the cubes into a freezer bag and defrost them as needed.
Because this syrup has no added sugar or acid, it’s not shelf-stable at room temperature. Always keep it chilled or frozen.
Ways to use apple syrup
- Drizzle over pancakes, waffles, or porridge
- Swirl through yogurt or ice cream
- Add it to water and make your own apple juice from concentrate or use it to add sweetness to dressings and sauces.
Homemade Pure Apple Syrup
Ingredients
- 3 kg ripe apples A sweet variety will make the sweetest syrup
Equipment
- Fruit juicer
Instructions
- Run the apples through a juicer. Let the juice sit for 5 minutes so the foam rises to the top, then skim it off.
- Pour the juice through cheesecloth into a wide saucepan to remove any remaining pulp.
- Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Stir occasionally and scrape any foam or residue from the sides. The juice will darken and thicken as it reduces.
- Continue simmering and occasional stirring for 1-2 hours, until the liquid has reduced by about 80-85% and thickened. To test, drop a spoonful onto a chilled plate. If it leaves a line when you run your finger through it, it’s ready.
- Let cool for 10 minutes, then pour into sterilised bottles or jars.
Notes
Tips
- Don't let the syrup reduce for too long or it will become apple toffee!
- Avoid under-ripe apples as they contain more pectin and may make the syrup gel when cooled.
- Watch closely near the end of cooking. It thickens quickly and can burn if left too long.
- Divide large batches across two wide pans for faster, even reduction.
I love this! I wondered if you’d tried it with other fruits? I have a bunch of citrus I don’t have a use for and love the idea of reducing it down to preserve it as syrup without sugar – do you think it would work? Thanks!
Hey Krystal, I’ve never tried it with citrus so I’m unsure if it would work sorry!
I imagine it works with high pectin fruits only.
Can you use store bought unsweetened apple juice?
Yup! 🙂
I have made apple cider caramels for the last couple of years, using apple cider. I make ALOT and gift them during the holidays. The cider is reduced to a syrup by boiling. 8 cups of cider reduced to about one cup of concentrated syrup, then cooked to specified temperature with other ingredients.
It appears there may be a supply issue this year. I typically have purchased from 2 sources. I bought 1 gallon from one of the sources last week. It was all they had available. They had received a smaller shipment than anticipated and it sold out quickly. ANYWAY…I boiled down 8 cups to about one cup yesterday. But that one cup does not resemble the consistency of syrup in any fashion; a minimal change in consistency from the original 8 cups. I’m wondering whether you have ever experienced this? Now I am left to wonder whether to cut my losses and toss this, or continue the process and possibly waste a number of other ingredients. Any insight you can provide would be appreciated.
Hey Pat, I’ve not had this happen before so I can’t give you any insight on why this one didn’t become syrupy!
I was using fresh apple juice with fresh grated ginger and cinnamon to dip apple slices before dehydrating them (YUM!) so at the end I decided to cook down the juice, ginger and cinnamon in a crock pot slowly over several hours and ends up with a dark caramel colored syrup with ZIP! to it.
I am about to can one of my last batches of apples this year and I am thinking of making apple pie filling using the apple ginger syrup as the thickener/sweetener for the filling recipe for canning. I won’t know the results for sure until we crack open a jar and make it into a pie. Wish me luck!
How long can you store the apple syrup?
Ugh! I took it too far and my syrup became pretty thick
Can I thin it out?
Months late, but I did the exact same thing and transferred it into a bowl while it was still hot and mixed it with room temperature water and it was perfect.
Have tried this today, but despite simmering for hours and reducing the juice to a fraction of the original quantity, there is no change in consistency, and no suggestion of ‘syrup’ qualities. I dont want to waste the juice, so I am going to look for a recipe with added sugar.
Hey Jo, I think I may know why your syrup didn’t turn out.
Apples have varying sugar contents, this is very important for the making of candies and syrups from the juice, if an apple has very low sugar content it won’t matter how much you reduce it, there won’t be enough sugar there, so going for an apple like honey crisp or Galla apples is a good idea. But, if you are in a pinch and know you won’t be able to get Special apples for the project, you can simple add sugar to your juice, this can be any sugar other than artificial sweeteners( no. I have not tried that type of sweetener so maybe they would work, I’ve just never seen it done)
Hopefully this helped
Well, I almost gave up when I simmered the juice away for what seemed like ages, and although it reduced, the consistency was still thin and not syrupy. I gave it one more go at boiling/ simmering, and hey presto, lovely appley syrupy gorgeousness. Thank you! To others trying this – keep going, you will get there!
I’m so happy you gave it another simmer and that it worked for you! 😀
Can you do this with berries and other fruit?
I haven’t tried it but if you got enough juice from a sweet fruit then I think so! 🙂
I have puréed my apples (didn’t have a juicer). I now have a lot of pulp. Very small amount of juice! Two questions: what do I do with the pulp—seem a waist to toss! Should I simply add water and honey to stretch the juice I have? Help!!
Hey Jean, few solutions here,
For the purée, if you like yogurt it goes very well on top of that with granola, you can use it as a fertilizer or add it to dog food (check the apples used, not sure on the toxicity of some apples to dogs) or use them in recipes that require apple bits
So second thing here, if you don’t have a juicer you can do it by hand, you need a grater and some type of cloth, preferably a cheese cloth, but whatever you have on hand as long as it can let water seep through is fine, you want to grate the apples and then place the grated apples on the cloth, and squeeze over a bowl, that should produce a good amount of juice and you can do that with your purée apples too,
Happy cooking!
I would like to make apple syrup for canning from my juiced apples. Have a recipe?
Thank you!
I am going to try this. When I use apples I plop all the peelings and cores into a pan and cook it down until I come up with a beautiful pink broth. I’m storing that broth in a freezer bag and was curious if I could take it to another level or use. I am hoping this will work. Nothing ventured nothing gained.