Homemade Maple Syrup
This homemade maple syrup is simple and easy to make and costs a heck of a lot less than store-bought pure maple syrup.
Syrup. The great conundrum of my breakfast life. Between this oatmeal pancake mix, simple french toast, and waffles, we eat hot breakfast nearly every morning of the week.
For years I’ve been agonizing over our syrup solution. Which makes me even grumpier in the mornings than I already am.

I can’t bring myself to use the thick, pancake syrup from the store because it is laden with additives and high fructose corn syrup.
That leaves me with pure maple syrup or homemade (or begging our neighbor who taps his own maple trees for some of his precious liquid gold he’s boiled down himself!).
For the last year I’ve been buying pure maple syrup from Sam’s Club, choking down the high cost every time but lately, in an effort to shrink our grocery budget a bit, I’ve had to give it up.
Other homemade syrups I’ve tried are decent but what holds me back from adoration is the film that forms on top of the syrup (with many of the buttermilk recipes) or the fact that they have enough corn syrup in them I might as well be buying the stuff from the store.
I want a maple look-alike without the high cost of pure maple and without the other junk. Is that too much to ask?
Ok, enough with my complaining, on to the solution! This homemade maple syrup is simple and easy to make and it tastes like…maple syrup! Hooray!
Because of the lack of corn syrup, it is on the thinner side, but that’s ok with my family because we have gotten used to the taste and consistency of pure maple syrup, which is quite thin.
This syrup is probably a tad bit thicker than pure maple. I worked out the nutrition facts on this syrup (mainly sugar content) a while ago when I was tweaking it and if I remember right, pure maple syrup has about 50g of sugar for 1/4 cup and this syrup worked out to be right around 48 or 49g of sugar for the same amount.
I haven’t bought pancake syrup from the store in years so I’m not sure how it compares. I’m guessing the “light” or “low-sugar” brands have less sugar – although beware of the processed additives in the mix.
I buy my pure maple extract from here. If you can find a brand locally where you live, even better!
Hopefully this homemade maple syrup will make you as happy as it has me! Has it converted me into a morning person? Ha! Not even close, but it does help me look slightly more forward to rolling myself out of bed to make breakfast for the fam.
Homemade Maple Syrup
Ingredients
- 8 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
- ½ cup honey
- 4 cups water
- 2 teaspoons pure maple extract
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a large 5-6 quart pot, combine the sugars, honey and water. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to low so the mixture gently simmers.
- Cover the pot and simmer the mixture for 15 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and let it cool for 20 minutes before stirring in the maple and vanilla extracts. Let the syrup cool in the pot for another 40 minutes, or so, stirring occasionally, before filling jars/containers. Once the containers are filled, let them cool to room temperature uncovered.
- Store covered in jars or other containers in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to 2 months in the refrigerator. Gently reheat before serving, if desired.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
I stopped buying store syrup because of HFCS but my kids revolted at pure maple syrup since they were so used to the store stuff. They can’t tell the difference between this recipe and the store brand- thanks a million! I don’t know your thoughts on agave, but I used it as a substitute for the sugar- it has the same calories per Tbsp, but you only use half as much because it is sweeter. However, agave is also expensive so it defeats the puropse of making syrup to stretch a dollar.
Jessi – yes, I think you could leave out the honey. If you aren’t opposed to using corn syrup, you could substitute that, as well, but I don’t think it would suffer from leaving it out. It doesn’t really act as a thickener as much as a balance of flavors/sweetener.
Melanie, I tried making this and I must say how impressed I was with the look and consistency it has compared to regular maple syrup. I would never be able to tell the difference! The only thing was that all I tasted was honey. I’m not a big honey person, so I’m wondering, do you think the recipe would work without honey? Or perhaps something else? I know that honey has a consistency to that of syrup, just a little thicker, so I afraid if I omit it, the syrup won’t turn out so well. Do you have any suggestions? I did downsize your recipe, and ended up using 1/4 cup I think. I’m desperate to make a maple syrup recipe work – I hate to buy store syrup! 🙂 Thank you!
I had to give this recipe another try. The first time a made it I don’t know what I did wrong but the entire thing went rock solid before I even had cooled it the first 20 minutes. This was a few months back and I rushed onto the comments to see if anyone else had the same problem-nope! It was just me! 🙂 So this time I followed every word of instructions and it turned out perfect (still don’t know what I did the first time around). I LOVE how it has the rich true maple flavor and not the watered down maple flavor my other recipe has. Thanks a bunch Mel!
This is delicious! I was looking for a homemade syrup with better, more complex flavor than the traditional water+sugar+mapleine syrup, and this is it! I did add 2 Tbsp cornstarch (stirred into the sugar) to make the syrup a little thicker. Thank you!
Oh my. This stuff is amazing. My 5 year old and I kept eating spoonfuls of it and even heated up a pancake at 3 pm to test it out. What a great way to save money…I have never bought pure maple syrup because it’s so expensive. Now there’s no need! Thank you for an awesome recipe. I am already looking forward to waking up tomorrow! (and thanks for the tip on where to buy pure maple extract….I found mapleiene and imitation maple extract easily but I wanted the pure stuff. I ended up getting it from cooks and got some pure vanilla paste while I was there….)
This sure saves money than buying a bottle at Sams club. Thanks for this!
Mrs. Butterworths from Costco has 37 grams of sugar. I can’t wait to try this. Te pure maple syrup is so expensive.
What a cool idea! Maple syrup is so expensive, but I am with you on the corn syrup and other garbage in generic “pancake syrup”.
(My husband and I went to high school with your sister Emily and I came across your blog from her blog–I love your site! I’m a vegetarian, but a lot of your recipes are easy to alter and give me some new ideas in my recipe rotation.)
We were at a sugarhouse last month for a field trip for my daughter’s school and they were talking about how fabulous the yield has been this year. Last year was a terrible year for maple syrup in New England (which I think is the primary source). So while I appreciate the need to cut costs and I am sure the recipe is fabulous (as they all are, my six year old said today “I know why we all love Mel so much!”) look for the cost of the real stuff to drop this year.
I bought maple cream for the first time this year (on said field trip) and am *loving* spreading that onto all kinds of bread products.
Okay, Mel, I tested out some changes. Here’s what I did, I cut out some of the sugar and then replaced some as well with honey since it is sweeter:
4 cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup honey
4 cups water
(extracts stayed the same)
I thought it was still plenty sweet and all my kids ate it up no problem-o on their pancakes. I did think it lacked flavor but definitely not sweetness. But to be fair, I haven’t made it before the way you posted it so I can’t give a comparison. I might try adding a touch more maple flavoring next time because I can’t imagine the sugar would effect the actual flavor. I also thought of subbing in sucanat or evaporated cane juice for the sugar, but at that point, cost-wise I’d be better off just buying the real thing 🙂 You could sub raw sugar but health-wise it’s not much better.
We make this all the time, since I’ve married my husband, I haven’t bought syrup. We also make a coconut syrup that is super fantastic over cheese waffles! We love it! I’ll have to find the recipe and send it over!
that stuff on the grocery store shelf labeled ‘maple syrup’ is a travesty. corn syrup with a hint of maple flavoring does not maple syrup make. thanks for this yummy recipe, mel–pancakes are not complete without REAL(ish) maple syrup.
Wow, great substitute! I esp love that it doesn’t have any corn syrup in it.
This is one of our favs:
Nutmeg Syrup
1 cup sugar
2 TBS all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups cold water
2 TBS butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and water until smooth. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for 2 mins until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. So yummy! But I will definitely be trying your recipe as well! I am rather picky about my syrup as well. 🙂
I feel like I should give you my first born or something, because you’ve been a major part of my family’s meals for the past year and a half. I found you through a friend I think, and I use your site weekly for menu planning. I have found so many recipes that our family loves, and have a million more I want to try. I tell everyone I ever talk to about food with you. So there you go–a year and half of great recipes, and I’m finally commenting!
We tried this tonight and really loved it. My husband converted me years ago to making our own syrup, and now I can’t stand the store bought stuff. The only problem is that I don’t really LOVE his family’s recipe either, so this was great. We both really loved it, and it will definitely go with the others that have become staples.
THanks!!
Hooray for an awesome syrup recipe! Pretty sure I owe you my first-born child to repay my debt of gratitude for this recipe.
I am sure you have tried this, but our low sugar syrup alternative is to put some frozen berries in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of sugar and cook until syrupy. Maybe this would get expensive if I was cooking hot breakfast that often!
I have always wondered if you could make homemade syrup. This looks great. I am going to have to try it. Thanks!
Great idea, I could do so many healthy versions with this 😉 I have maple extract too.
Hi Mel,
You have helped me with many dinnertime dilemmas. Thank you. So your comment about wanting to cut back even more on your grocery bill made me wonder. Since you clearly cook a lot from scratch, I have always assumed that you already save a lot of money. Do you feel that is true? Or is cooking from scratch becoming like sewing your own clothes? You’ll enjoy it more and get just what you want, but may not save money that way. I guess I’m curious if you have ever done a comparison or figured out how much you think you save. Just curious. It might be an interesting blog-post.
Thanks again,
Louisa
Hooray! I have been buying the pure also……no more for me. Thank you. We’ve eliminated everything artificial from my kids food and the behavior issues have almost dissolved completely. Thanks for the great, low cost solutions.
Great article! I have family sometimes makes their own syrup similar to this, even though I make 100% pure maple syrup every year. If your looking for affordable maple syrup, we sell ours for 11.00 dollars a quart (32 oz).
Thank You 🙂
Just wanted to give my perspective as a New Englander. I totally understand everyone’s frustration with the high cost of maple syrup, but people may not realize how much work goes into the finished product. The weather conditions have to be just right for sap to run, so there’s a very brief period of time in which trees can be tapped. Then, it takes more than 40 gallons of sap to = 1 gallon of syrup. Producers invest in expensive equipment that can only be used for this brief period of time and work around the clock until the sap is used up, and that’s it for the year. The maple syrup industry gives people an incentive to keep their beautiful old maple trees standing (only older trees are strong enough to be tapped) and preserves a tradition stretching back 100s of years to the Native Americans. While anything made with sugar and vanilla is probably delicious, I doubt there’s any recipe that can give you the true maple flavor. (No, I don’t work for the maple syrup association!) Pure maple syrup is one of the last 100% natural foods we produce as our ancestors did – I hope people will consider cutting back somewhere else (less steak, more syrup?)
I, too, grew up on 2 parts sugar to 1 part water and Mapleline and continued the tradition with my kids. They and their friends loved it. However, I haven’t seen Mapleline in any store in my area (San Francisco) for a long time, so have used maple extract. Does anyone on the Peninsula know what store I can buy it. I am excited to try this recipe, with the addition of honey, brown sugar and vanilla.
I too am not a fan on the bottled ‘pancake syrup’ from the store. I make a variety of homemade syrups from a strawberry syrup to a apple cider syrup to my own (corn syrup free!) homemade maple syrup. Homemade is so much cheaper and always tastes better too! I will have to try your recipe the next time I have a craving for pancakes!
So. WEIRD! My friend and I were JUST talking about maple syrup today (I have a recipe that calls for it) and how the sugary “fake” stuff is so bad for us. I’m excited to try this out!!
Just FYI – Mrs. Butterworth has 37 g sugar per 1/4 cup; but lots of HFCS (first ingredient, in fact).
If it’s a thinner syrup anyway, I wonder how it would be with slightly less sugar. The recipes I haved used in the past had a sugar:water ratio of 3:2 but they DID have corn syrup. Hmmm, I wonder if you could substitute more honey and less granulated sugar (or raw sugar for that matter)….
Mayme – I think you are on to something – and that being that this recipe is certainly adaptable. Let me know if you play around with it at all!
Grew up on homemade Mapleine syrup and I just can’t stomach the store-bought stuff. (Especially when people put it on COLD…EWWW!! Who DOES that????)
I’ll have to try your recipe. Like others, I’ve only used sugar, water & Mapleine and had the same issues with crystallization. I was surprised reading through the comments how many had never known they could make their own…especially with how easy it is!
If you don`t let it boil, but only heat it until dissolved, then you won`t end up with crystals.
I’m intrigued. We love real maple syrup here, but at $20 for a half quart, the cost is killing us.
I love the idea of using honey in place of corn syrup. I’m excited to try it. I have been making my own syrup for years. When I make a large batch I pour it hot into a mason jar and immediately seal with lid and ring. As it cools the jar seals. Then I store it in the pantry. I’ve even used small commercial jars (re-purposed jam jar) with a good rubber ring inside and a “seal button” When the “seal button is sucked down I know I have a good seal. This saves precious refrigerator space.
As for the sugar crystals…I just add a small amount of water to the jar, heat in the microwave until they are dissolved and add them to the next batch of syrup. No chiseling and no waste.
My mom used to make this when I was a kid (with Mapleline . . . of course, as a typical kid, I wanted “store bought” ’cause it’s what all my friends were eating! As an adult (with my mother gone) I continue to find more and more opportunities to appreciate all of the times my mother went out of her way to give us healthier (and sometimes more economical) ways alternatives. Thank you for the wonderful memory this afternoon.
Have you tried it with raw sugar? I’m a health nut and try not to use white sugar whenever possible. Just wondering, but I think it would work. I’m going to check your source for maple extract. It looks so pretty, I’ve made homemade syrup before with imitation maple extract, but yours looks like the real thing.
Jackie Brown – no, I’ve never tried it with raw sugar. Let me know if you give it a go!
Where did you find the cute glass bottle?
Laurie – I’m pretty sure I bought it at Target eons ago.
I have been making syrup the same way as Becki posted above (just sugar, water, and Mapeline). We love the taste, but have the same problem as Jill mentioned with the leftovers being crystalized. I’m excited to try this!
Never mind!!!! Found it!
Sounds interesting! Can you tell us how much this recipe makes (pint/quart/etc)? Thanks, Mel!
Mel, I have never heard of such a thing but I absolutely LOVE this idea! What a fun and easy thing to make for yourself, and cost effective too, since the good stuff is always so expensive. My husband and I are at constant odds over this – He prefers Aunt Jemima and I prefer practically licking the sap right off the tree… This will be a wonderful way to compromise, haha! I’ll definitely be giving this a shot. Thanks for sharing.
I have made homemade syrup for years, and my frustration is the crystallization that happens. This is a large batch! Will it store in the fridge without crystallizing. I have tried cooling it fast, slow and each time there is this hard sugar shell in the container that has to chiseled out with a knife. I hate that part! So What is your experience?
Hi Jill – I’ve had the same issue with crystallization now and again but for me, it only happens when there is just a bit of syrup left in the jar. When I make large batches of this syrup, I let the syrup cool in the pot for about an hour before pouring into mason jars. Then, I leave the mason jars uncovered until the syrup has cooled completely before covering and storing in the refrigerator. I’ve never had an issue with the syrup crystallizing that way. The only times I’ve gotten the sugary crystals is when there is only an inch of syrup in the quart sized mason jar and then sometimes I get sugary layer. Also, I make an effort to pour the syrup that I want warmed up into a separate liquid measure. And if there are leftovers of that warmed syrup, I don’t readd it to the syrup in the mason jar until it is completely cooled. I noticed one time when I warmed up all the syrup in the jar at once that when I refrigerated it again, it formed a crusty, sugary shell. Hope that helps a little bit!
I’ve been buying maple syrup at Costco too but with so many other must have fancy(expensive) ingredients on my shopping list I’m willing to give this a try. Thank you for an alternative without fake ingredients!
I know this recipe sounds too good to be true but you should try it. Our family has been making it for the last 25 years and my kids can’t stomach the store bought ones. Boil 2 cups sugar, 1 cup water and 1 tsp. Mapeline. (found in the spice section) Watch it closely as it will boil over. It’s ready as soon as it comes to a boil and thickens as it cools. Simple and amazingly delicious!
This is really impressive. For the last year I have been using the maple flavored agave. Not sure if it’s better, but I feel like it’s not quite as sweet as syrup.
Thank you for this recipe! I only buy 100% pure maple syrup from Costco and everytime I do I want to cry due to the cost. Our family finds the pancake syrup from the store bland and we try to avoid high fructose corn syrup. I am so excited to try this syrup! We too are trying to find areas to cut back on our grocery bill without sacrificing quality. Thanks again, we love your recipes!!
I’ve so enjoyed reading your blog /making stuff that I want to share one of our family recipes with you. It’s pretty much amazing, keeps well in the fridge (just needs a little re-heating) and takes morning starch enjoyment to a whole new level. Enjoy!
Apple Syrup
1 c. granulated sugar
2 Tbs. cornstarch
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 c. apple cider or juice
2 Tbs lemon juice
1/4 c. butter
Mix dry ingredients in a medium saucepan. Add juices and bring to a boil. Boil one minute, stirring constantly. Off heat, add butter and stir until combined.
That’s it! Thanks again for your blog – it’s helped me get out of a major cooking funk 🙂
Kellie, this sounds amazing. Any idea how long the Apple Syrup lasts in the refridgerator? Thanks!
Finally, a great alternative to pricey maple syrup but without all the funky ingredients! Thanks so much, Mel! You’re amazing!!
What a great idea! You’re such a smart cookie!! I can’t wait to try this!
Where were you YESTERDAY morning when my husband poured the last of the store bought syrup all over his pancakes and then had the nerve to ask aloud why I wasn’t eating any pancakes!!!!! In case you are asking, yes, he knew that we only had that small amount of syrup left (about 3/4 cup ….enough to share) , we discussed it and I wrote it on my shopping list. But I have recovered from that and will make this recipe today !!!! Thank you!
What a clever solution (no pun intended) to a sweet dilemma. Congrats.
Thanks for posting Mel! I love that sugary stuff from the grocery store, but I don’t like to give it to my kids, and I know it isn’t good for me either. We, too, buy the stuff from Sam’s, but I barely let anyone use it! I only use it for recipes and sometimes for pancakes. I’ll try this recipe out. I just asked my husband if we have any maple trees in our backyard…haha