If there is one thing that I know about cooking, it is that nothing ever, ever has to be boring. To me, bottled pancake syrup is fake, flavorless and just flat. This is just my opinion. There is nothing wrong with a cute little bottle of Aunt Jemima, really.

I haven’t bought “regular” syrup (as my kids call it) in years.  All it took was me reading the label once to realize that I couldn’t eat my pancakes and syrup, too. It just isn’t worth all of the calories to me, and I also didn’t want to fill my kids with the sugar first thing in the morning.  My solution was to find a suitable sugar-free variety for common use and invest in a few good bottles of pure maple syrup.

As I have said before, I am a huge fan of Burton Maplewood Farms syrup.  Not only is it tasty, but it’s harvested and made in a cute little sugar house in southern Indiana.  Medora, to be exact.  I can feel good about serving this and for buying locally produced syrup at the same time.  This maple sweetness can be used in many things….you can’t say that about Mrs. Butterworth. ????
Something I like to do when I have fresh fruit, as I did last weekend, is to make a simple fruit syrup. Really it’s more like a warm compote, but when I add a little bit of maple syrup at the end, it gives you more of a thin, syrup consistency.

To make this homemade blueberry maple syrup, I use the following ingredients:

1 pint of blueberries

zest of 1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

2 teaspoons cane sugar

1 tablespoon of Burton’s Maple Syrup, stirred in right before serving.
I cook the blueberries down while I make pancakes or cinnamon french toast and both are done cooking at the same time.

This homemade syrup recipe can be made many different fruits. Peaches, currants, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and many others.  I try to use fresh fruit as opposed to frozen if I can, because I like the consistency better, but use what you have.  There are no rules here. Just do what feels right, and taste as you go!