Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Homemade Corn Syrup Substitute

Perfect Homemade Corn Syrup Substitute is a candy-like sauce cooks up to be super thick, full-bodied, and sweet just like real corn syrup.

Author: Gemma Stafford

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (16oz/450g) sugar
  • 3/4 cup (6floz/170ml) water
  • 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (there is no substitute for this)
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice*
  • a pinch of salt

Instructions

  • In a heavy bottomed saucepan, over medium heat, add the sugar, water, cream of tartar, salt and lemon juice.
  • Once the sugar dissolves, turn down the heat and let the syrup simmer steadily until it reduces significantly and becomes a thick syrup that drips off your spatula slowly. This will take roughly 15 to 20 minutes. You can test if it's ready by putting a drop on a cold plate and placing it back in the fridge for 10 minutes. If it is really thick once it's cold then it is ready. To be even more exact, you want it to reaches 230°F (110°C) on a candy thermometer. 
  • Remove from the heat and put the pot in a bowl of cold water to cool it down quickly. Once the syrup cools down completely use as directed in your recipe. 
  • You will end up with roughly 1 1/3 cups (14oz/398g) of corn syrup substitute. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 months. 

Recipe Notes

*The lemon juice prevents the sugars from crystallizing once stored. 

Quick syrup recipe

 I went to the grocery store the other day, to pick up some pancake syrup.

Yeah, right!

Talk about prices getting out of control!

So, I decided it was time to start making syrup, to at a minimum, add to our store bought, to stretch it out.

Our family prefers Mrs. Butterworth's over all, but we also like Log Cabin & Aunt Jemima brands.

So, yesterday I made the following recipe, and although as a stand alone, there is a difference, when mixed 50/50 with Log Cabin, I could not taste ANY difference. This made just over 1/2 quart of syrup.

Ingredients

1.5 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1 .5 cups water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon maple flavoring


Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the sugars, water and corn syrup; bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for 7 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in maple flavoring and vanilla. Cool for 15 minutes.
There is no problem in making extra large batches of this.
My suggestion would be to water bath quarts for 20 minutes and pints for 15 minutes.

I think next time, I may add butter flavoring or butter emulsion to see if I can get close to a Mrs. Butterworth's version.