Recipes with Simple Syrup
Want to learn how to make recipes with simple syrup? Whether you’re mixing up a cocktail, sweetening your iced coffee, or brushing a flavored simple syrup on a cake, homemade simple syrup is one of the best ways to add sweetness to your favorite drinks and recipes.
Read on for everything you need to know about how to make simple syrup, including a basic recipe for simple syrup and plenty of ideas for recipes with simple syrup. Or just hit that Jump to Recipe button, and let’s make homemade simple syrup!
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What is simple syrup?
Simple syrup is just a sugar dissolved in water. Because it’s liquid, simple syrups blend easily into cold drinks, quite unlike what happens when you add white sugar directly into an iced coffee!
Ingredients
Classic simple syrup recipes call for combining equal volumes, like 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water. This is a so-called 1 to 1 simple syrup ratio, sometimes written as 1:1.
You can use any type of sugar for simple syrup. Leave the white sugar behind and make a honey simple syrup recipe, brown sugar simple syrup, or use demerara sugar, an unrefined brown sugar that makes a fabulously rich demerara simple syrup!
Please see the recipe card below for complete information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations and substitutions
- Make a rich simple syrup with a 2 to 1 simple syrup using twice as much sugar as water. A rich simple syrup is more concentrated and will last longer in your refrigerator.
- Make flavored simple syrups by infusing your homemade syrup with herbs, spices, fruit or fruit peels.
Recipe tips and tricks
There’s nothing complicated about making homemade simple syrup. Combine equal amounts of honey and water in a small pot and heat on low heat just until your sugar or honey dissolves into the water.
Tip from the wise quacker: NEVER bring simple syrup to a boil. If you boil your sugar, you’ll make caramel and not simple syrup!
Once the sugar has dissolved, remove the pot from the heat. Add any flavor elements you want to make a flavored simple syrup.
Once the simple syrup is cool, strain your homemade simple syrup into a clean jar. The jar doesn’t have to be sterilized like if you were canning because it’ll only be in the refrigerator a few weeks.
Cocktails with simple syrups
Now that you’ve made one homemade simple syrup, now it’s time to have fun! Here are some other suggestions for cocktails that use flavored simple syrups:
- Spicy Margarita with jalapeño simple syrup
- Lady Bridgerton Empress gin cocktail (with Earl grey and lavender simple syrup)
- Gimlets, using lavender or strawberry simple syrup
- Rose Syrup French 75 using rose-flavored syrup
- A Raspberry Jalapeño Bramble, with a raspberry syrup
- Blackberry Vodka Sour made with blackberry simple syrup
- Blueberry Gin and Tonic with blueberry simple syrup
Other recipes with simple syrups
You can use your simple syrups in non-alcoholic drinks like iced tea and flavored lemonades. Or use it to sweeten coffee drinks like my Mocktail Espresso Martini.
Sugar syrups are also often used to add moisture to multi-layer cakes or the top of a loaf cake. Some times the sugar syrup is water-based, but your soaking syrup also can be sweetened coffee or lemon juice or any of a number of liquids.
For whichever use, these syrups are made in the exact same way as a simple syrup in cocktails. Here are some examples of my cake recipes that use sugar syrups:
- Blackberry Lemon Loaf (lemon syrup)
- Tiramisu Cake (coffee syrup)
- Chocolate Orange Cake (orange syrup)
- Nutella Babka (simple syrup)
Recipe FAQs
Yes, over time – usually a week or two – homemade simple syrup will start to grow bacteria or mold, even in the refrigerator. If it’s cloudy, toss it and make a new batch.
You can try to freeze your homemade simple syrup in an ice cube tray. Know that they will take longer to freeze than plain water or they may never freeze completely because the dissolved sugar lowers the freezing point.
Related cocktails with simple syrup
Check out other gin cocktails and mixed drinks that use a classic sugar syrup, like:
Love cocktails and want to explore more? Read all about classic cocktails and bartender basics, check out my list of essential bar tools for cocktails at home, and join this year’s 52 weeks of cocktails challenge!
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-heart 💜💜💜💜💜 rating in the recipe card below. Let me know how much you loved it, or any problems you had, in the comments section further down.
Recipe
How to Make Simple Syrup
Ingredients
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup granulated sugar or brown sugar, demerara, honey, etc.
Instructions
- Combine the water and sugar or honey in a small pot and heat over low heat until the sugar dissolves into the water completely.¼ cup water, ¼ cup granulated sugar
- Pour into a small jar and let cool.
- Store in the refrigerator for one to two weeks.
Notes
Nutrition
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