What’s better than the perfect, fluffy pancake recipe? Topping those epic pancakes with this easy homemade strawberry syrup!
Grab fresh or frozen strawberries and get ready to make the most delicious pancake topping ever.
Saturday morning pancakes are non-negotiable at my house. My kids never get tired of pancakes (who would!) and love all the different pancake recipes I’ve put together through the years.
My secret to serving pancakes weekly is freezing them ahead of time so that any morning can be a pancake morning! All I have to do is pop them in the toaster oven and top them with a drizzle of this delicious pancake syrup. Breakfast in minutes and out the door they go!
Healthy Strawberry Syrup
Why would you want to make your own strawberry syrup? For starters, it’s super easy, and if you can warm up soup in a small pot you can make this syrup. The real strawberry flavor also tastes so much better and we don’t need as much sugar or honey to sweeten it so this recipe has less sugar per serving compared to storebought syrup.
Strawberry Syrup Ingredients
To make this homemade strawberry syrup you’ll need:
- diced strawberries: the star of this recipe. You can use fresh or frozen berries.
- honey or regular sugar: honey or plain white sugar can be used to make this homemade syrup.
- water: added to the sugar and berries so everything can cook down into a syrup.
- cornstarch: a thickening agent and helps give the syrup a smooth consistency. A grain-free option would be arrowroot powder.
How to Make Strawberry Syrup
The ingredients are first cooked down on the stove-top then blended into a delicious, pourable syrup. It’s super easy to make and goes like this:
- Make a slurry
Combine 2 tablespoons of water and cornstarch in a small dish and set aside. - Add everything to a saucepan
Bring the water, sugar, and strawberries in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. - Stir in the slurry
Add the water-cornstarch mixture to the saucepan and stir to combine. Remove from heat. - Blend until smooth
Carefully pour the strawberry sauce into a blender, top with the lid, and process until smooth. Slowly add about ¼ cup more water while blending. - Serve and Store
Drizzle the warm syrup over a stack of pancakes and enjoy. Refrigerate the remaining syrup in a lidded jar for 1 to 2 weeks. Remove the syrup from the fridge a few minutes before serving.
The syrup is super easy to make and in this video below, I’m going to show you how to make it with honey since that’s something that’s been requested frequently.
Really, it IS that simple to make your own fresh fruit syrup! If you are new to this blog, you might want to check out my gluten-free pancake recipe and the Blueberry Syrup Recipe. I’m sure they will become favorites at your house too.
Strawberry Syrup Recipe
This is a simple pancake syrup recipe you can make with fresh summer strawberries or that frozen stash in your freezer. Once it’s cooked into a syrup and blended it’s easy to drizzle and adds a sweet, fresh flavor to pancakes, waffles, or french toast. It’s also a great idea to use up those overly ripe berries in your fridge.
Strawberry Syrup Recipe
Strawberry syrup made with fresh fruit. A healthier pancake topping full of flavor, inspired by what you’d get at Ihop!
Yields 1 cup of homemade syrup
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 16
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Stove-top
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 2 cups diced strawberries
- ½ cup white sugar or honey
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons water, divided
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- In a small dish, combine 2 tablespoons water with 1 tablespoon cornstarch and set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the water, sucanat (or sugar), and diced strawberries and bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Add the water-cornstarch mixture and stir to combine. The sauce will thicken and the strawberries will begin smelling like warm jelly. Turn off heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly before serving.
- If you prefer a smooth syrup, carefully pour the cooled strawberry sauce in a blender and process until smooth, slowly adding an additional ¼ cup of water while blending.
- You could also blend the syrup directly in the saucepan with an immersion blender.
- Serve the warm strawberry syrup over pancakes.
- Refrigerate the leftover syrup in a lidded jar for one to two weeks. Remove the syrup from the fridge prior to serving.
Notes
You can also use maple syrup. Cook your berries and once they are “reduced” add in ⅓ cup maple syrup.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tablespoon
- Calories: 32
- Sugar: 7.1 g
- Sodium: 0.3 mg
- Fat: 0.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 8.1 g
- Fiber: 0.4 g
- Protein: 0.1 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: strawberry syrup, how to make strawberry syrup, strawberry pancake syrup, strawberry syrup recipe
Robert
My wife wanted some French Toast, but she did not want some store bought syrup and wanted a homemade fruity syrup. I found this recipe and gave it a try. Afterwards, she needed to make sure that I had made extra syrup because she loved it so much.
★★★★★
Laura Fuentes
I am so glad it was such a hit Robert! and thank you for letting me know you guys loved it.
Lauren
I had to continue simmering this batch for about an hour after the initial 10 minutes to make it thick enough to be considered pancake syrup even after I took an immersion blender to it. I made sure I followed the directions to a T so next time I will use less water. I also made the blueberry version with the same instructions and it turned out perfect! Both are very tasty and simple to make!
★★★★
Monet
Do you think Splenda would work in place of sugar?
Laura Fuentes
While I don’t use splenda for cooking, I know others have used it successfully. Unfortunately, I can’t guesstimate the measurements for you.
Monet
When subbing splenda for sugar it tends to be that you use the same amount. If anyone is ever curious there is a chart on Splenda’s website. I will likely go by taste, I’ve only recently started to use splenda instead of sugar in baking. Thanks for replying!
Richard Murray
Very quick and easy to make in roughly twenty minutes. Filled a pint jar with sauce in anticipation of pancakes in the morning and later ice cream
★★★★★
Tina Peterson
Hi! We eat yogurt & peanut butter a lot. I find the higher protein breakfasts go a longway toward higher energy and happier more content kiddos.
🙂 Tina
★★★★
Jackie
I make a huge batch of erthang breakfast related then freeze the leftovers for weekday mornings. ‘Mama, can I have pancakes?’. Yes. Yes, you can.
Danielle
Our quick (healthy) go-to breakfasts are Fruit & nut parfaits, oatmeal with fruit & chia seeds & omlettes with spinach and grape tomatoes
Anne F.
Our go to breakfast for our 2 little girls are either greek yogurt w/ a little honey, cinnamon, chia seeds and fresh fruit or whole wheat toast with a little cream cheese and fruit on the side. My husband eats during his long commute so he likes it simple and filling… Overnight oats! He likes different combos so I try to experiment w/ whatever fruits we have on hand. I can’t wait to try your bananas foster version!
★★★★★
Lisa
My healthy go to recipe for breakfast is smashed banana with wheat germ anf flax seed!
★★★★★
Gina
My go-to breakfast is a high protein pancake/waffle for me and the kids…The recipe is from the Guyer Family blog and includes 4 eggs, 1c cottage cheese, a 1/2c of flour a dash of salt and vanilla and only one tablespoon of coconut sugar. I blend it all in a Vitamix the night before and then can either make fresh or make ahead and freeze to pop in the toaster in the morning.
The Bixbee lunchboxes and backpacks look sturdy and right up our alley. 🙂
Kay Lechner
So excited to learn more about Bixbee – thanks for the email about their backpacks!
My go-to breakfast recipe is mini quinoa quiches — I always have some in the freezer that I can thaw overnight and heat up in the morning (or eat cold if I’m in a real hurry). The eggs, green veggies, and quinoa are a great start to the day!
Thanks for the recipe.
★★★★★
paula
Our favorite quick breakfast is a yogurt parfait with plain greek yogurt, hoeny, fresh fruit, and homemade granola. Yum!
Amber M
Our go to quick breakfast is yogurt with granola or muesli and fruit. We choose low sugar yogurt and the protein gives a good energy boost.
My son pointed at and liked a few of the cute backpacks on the Bixbee site! 🙂
Patsy
Breakfast burrito and oatmeal. I make regular not instant oatmeal but make it in three minutes in the microwave so it’s faster. I love the dino camo backpack!
Mindy
Like many others, I like to make a big batch of something and freeze. Then thaw and go, or pop in the toaster. Waffles, banana or zucchini muffins, french toast sticks, applesauce muffins, egg muffins. I also make and freeze smoothies, put one in the fridge at night and it is ready to drink in the am.
Momables approved lunch box? I’m sold! I am forever on the hunt for the ideal lunchbox. Super cute too! Love the backpack idea since my 8 year old son already has back pain /issues. Thank you for sharing!
★★★
Shea
I love the momables mini quiches. We also do the perfect pancakes- I double the batch and freeze them- so easy!
Heather Benes
My favorite thing to have for a quick breakfast to get us out of the house are breakfast burritos. I love that I can make a batch of these and put them in the freezer for a quick heat up in the microwave when I need them. My kids prefer fruit that I have cut up and saved in the fridge. They can grab the fruit and eat it while they’re getting dressed in the morning. I would like to see a healthy version of a breakfast burrito from you. I’m sure mine could use a healthy makeover 🙂 I really liked the shark backpack for my son and the fairy wings backpack for my daughter. I had never heard of this company before, they do an awesome job with kids backpacks. I also like that they donate backpacks to kids around the world – knowing this really makes me want to give them my business! Thank you for the opportunity to win a backpack.
Laura Fuentes
Heather, I love making breakfast burritos ahead of time too! Check out my recipe. It’s simple and fast!https://www.laurafuentes.com/make-ahead-breakfast-burritos-recipe-video/
Heather Benes
Awesome, thank you so much for the link! I’ll check it out.
Jess
We make ahead pancake mix with pumpkin puree, and cinnamon for a tasty breakfast.
His all-time favorite is “egg with the center cut out”, but I don’t know how to make ahead, and still have runny yolks.
We checked out the backpacks and lunchboxes, he thinks the zombie one is awesome!
Suzanne L.
Homemade muffins paired with a green smoothie is our quick morning breakfast, especially during the school year!
My daughter loves the Butterfly Garden backpack & lunchbox.