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Ontario, Canada
I am a wife, mother and grandma who enjoys the many aspects of homemaking. A variety of interests and hobbies combined with travel keep me active. They reflect the importance of family, friends, home and good food.
Cook ingredients that you are used to cooking by other techniques, such as fish, chicken, or hamburgers. In other words be comfortable with the ingredients you are using.
--Bobby Flay

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Sunday, January 24, 2010

Homemade Vanilla Syrup

My gosh have you ever had one of those total duh moments when you could easily made a homemade substitute for a store bought item at the fraction of the cost. I posted awhile ago that one of my new favourite drinks was London Fog that is supposed to use vanilla syrup but I was just using a little pure vanilla extract. After doing a bit of research I realized there were a multitude of beverage syrups available for flavouring teas and specialty coffees. Most were priced in the $10 price range but since you use so little that didn't look like a bad price until my frugal bone reminded me that flavoured syrups are quite easily made at home at a fraction of the cost of store bought.

vanilla syrup ingredientsVanilla Syrup Ingredients

I decided to make vanilla syrup for my London Fog drink. The general ingredients for any syrup are sugar, water and flavour. I had two 100% pure vanilla extracts to work with, one a clear and the other dark vanilla extract my husband brought back from the Dominican. I reserve the clear for those dishes where I don't want an off colour imparted to the dish. I decided to use the dark extract for this syrup.

I keep most bottles and jars especially the cute ones to reuse just for this type of purpose. A funnel is really helpful for filling the bottle. Other than that no special equipment is necessary.

homemade vanilla syrupHomemade Vanilla Syrup

Making an unflavoured syrup is as easy as mixing equal amounts of granulated cane sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring that to a low boil then reduce heat and simmer 5 to 7 minutes until it slightly thickens. Remove from the heat and let cool until the outside of the saucepan. Using a funnel pour the syrup into a bottle of your choice. Add ¾ tsp pure vanilla extract. Cap the bottle then gently shake. Allow the syrup to cool completely then refrigerate. Use as desired for flavouring beverages. The dark pure vanilla extra gave a light amber hue to the syrup but that is fine for the purposes it will be used.


4 food lovers commented:

melissa said...

oh wow, thank for this! I LOVE anything vanilla :-)

Garden Gnome said...

You're quite welcome :)

Inspired by eRecipeCards said...

I agree... anything vanilla. I gave up soda for New Year's, and it is going fine. Lots of tea... Gonna start adding this, GREAT POST!

Anonymous said...

I jumped right on board! Made Vanilla Syrup and caramel sauce, stored them in squeeze bottles in the fridge. together or apart, they produce my fave Starbucks drinks! Yaaay! Thanks for the inspiration!