Naturally Sweetened Simple Syrup and Fruit Spread

Naturally Sweetened Simple Syrup

• 4 Cups Fruit

• 1 Cup Water

• 1 Cup Honey or Maple Syrup

1. Bring water and fruit to a boil.

2. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

3. Cool for 30 minutes. This is important because we don't want to cook our raw honey.

4. Stir in honey and mix well.

5. Pour through a fine mesh sieve. You will need to patiently stir mixture with a rubber scraper.

6. Save pulp as a fruit spread. Use to top pancakes, waffles, yogurt, hot breakfast cereal etc. You could also put it in a smoothie.

7. Store both the simple syrup and fruit spread in the fridge.

TIPS

• Harder fruit such as rhubarb will take longer to cook; closer to 30 minutes. Softer fruit like berries will be done in 20 minutes.

• Rhubarb and many other fruit pulps work well for a fruit spread after making simple syrup. However, berries do not, because the pulp left is mostly seeds. However, I have combined just a small amount of berry pulp with the rhubarb pulp and it worked really well. It gave the pale rhubarb pulp a little pink color which was nice.