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I make strawberry syrup using the follow ingredientes.

  • 1 pound of strawberrys;
  • half lemon juice;
  • 1 cup of sugar.

How can I make a sugar free (or at least using less sugar) strawberry syrup?

pablosaraiva
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    What about the sugar in the strawberries? – Cascabel Nov 06 '11 at 05:39
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    Sugar is not added to syrup for the taste; syrup is made of sugar by definition. You can make a strawberry-tasting liquid with artificial sweeteners, but 1) you will have to play a lot with thickeners to achieve a texture similar to syrup, 2) it will have a much shorter shelf life, and 3) technically, you shouldn't be calling it a syrup any more. – rumtscho Nov 07 '11 at 13:18
  • @Jefromi, the sugar in the strawberries is enough for me too, but I wanted to know how can I make my syrup (now I know that without sugar it's not syrup) without adding sugar, but keeping the texture. I'll try reducing the strawberries with a little bit of water and see if its tastes good. Maybe add a little stevia as Carina sugested. – pablosaraiva Nov 07 '11 at 18:17
  • Low concentrations of tapioca powder might fill the bill perfectly. Don't bother with agar or Xanthan gum. Orange peels provide a lot of pectin so you could try that to find what gives you something just shy of jelly. Sieve off the chunks of orange peel and there you are. Come to think of it some stores sell straight pectin. It's worth a look. – Wayfaring Stranger Dec 01 '18 at 00:42

5 Answers5

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Hmm, you might omit the sugar, reduce the lemon juice (maybe by half or so), and blend the strawberries very thoroughly with the remaining lemon juice, and that way you will get a nice flavorful strawberry sauce.

If, you then strain the sauce very well, and reduce the (basically) strawberry juice to the desired thickness (I'm picturing a honey-like consistency), you will end up with a translucent, thick, and smooth strawberry not-syrup - since syrup is defined by the added sugar, as others mentioned, and assuming the natural sugars in the strawberries don't end up counting enough to make it a "real" syrup. I don't think it will reach a really syrup-like stage without that straining, since the berry fibers will turn it into a paste instead when the water is too low for a sauce.

This strawberry not-syrup would be much more strongly strawberry flavored, for the same consistency, since the extra sugar needed to make it syrup-thick is substituted with extra strawberry juice, minus water. You will also get much less syrup out of it, between the volume of the missing sugar, the missing half of the lemon juice, and the loss of the extra water needed to make the final product thick enough. But, it should act, and store, much like a strawberry syrup would.

Megha
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  • That would be strawberry treacle, not strawberry syrup. Treacle never tastes like the original fruit, the cooking down process is very long and changes the taste significantly. Also, the yield from strawberries will be really low. – rumtscho Dec 01 '18 at 10:10
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You can make your strawberry sauce syrup without sugar easily just by replacing the sugar with stevia and then adding it to a proper amount of gelatin water for the proper consistency. It won't be the same for sure but it will be almost sugar free and thicker than water but not have the exact consistency of a syrup. Maybe a little xanthan gum along with the plain gelatin would be a little closer though.

Doug
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You could replace the sugar with some artificial sweetener. I don't know the exact ratio, but I believe you can use less sweetener to an equivalent amount of sugar. But by definition syrup contains sugar, so you wouldn't be able to eliminate it (or a replacement completely).

I suppose, depending on what you're doing with it (topping for dessert, waffles, pancakes), you could just take the strawberries, add some water and lemon juice, and reduce it and make a sauce instead of a true syrup...

talon8
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  • I think it's worth pointing out that by "replacement" you pretty much have to mean some sort of thickener. The sugar is what thickens the syrup, so if you just use strawberries and artificial sweeteners, you'll cook it down until it gets thick enough... and end up using the strawberries' sugar to thicken it, and therefore have much less volume, and end up eating about as much sugar anyway. – Cascabel Nov 07 '11 at 15:58
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Use Agave Syrup/nectar instead. Reduce the quantity a little, about 2/3cup instead of your 1 cup of sugar.

Since you're using a liquid instead of real sugar, you may need to then reduce the amount of lemon juice. To keep a lemon flavour, you could try infusing the syrup with a slice or two of lemon while it's cooking. Definitely remove any lemon rind before bottling or using as it will be too bitter otherwise.

KimbaF
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    Agave nectar is a (natural) mixture of fructose and glucose ([wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_nectar wikipedia)) so if the poster wants to reduce *refined* sugar it would be a good substitute, but fructose and glucose are both sugars, so it's really just substituting unrefined for refined sugars. – Gregor Thomas Nov 06 '11 at 19:33
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I always use stevia. It's not an artificial sweetner, it's natural and it comes from a leaf. You can buy the extract which is super super sweet (a tiny level scoop it usually comes with equalls a tablespoon) or you can buy stevia sugar which is supposed to come to the same volume as sugar (so you don't have to add bulk) but it's more expensive. I usually buy the liquid stevia drops since I make a lot of chocolate at home and it just mixes right into other liquids I'm using. Nice. Liquid stevia can even come in different flavours. Oh, right, and it doesn't have any carbs/calories!

Carina
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