Our homemade strawberry simple syrup is made with real strawberries and is easy to make and made with simple ingredients! This syrup is perfect for your favorite drinks, such as cocktails, mocktails, matcha lattes, lemonades, and more.
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One of my newfound favorite things to make these days are fun syrup recipes for drinks or pancakes. And our newest edition to our syrup collection is our homemade strawberry simple syrup!
This recipe is super easy to make and makes a flavorful and vibrant syrup you can use in any way you like, you can even make some dairy free strawberry milk with it.
Since the base syrup recipe is all-natural, it’s not as concentrated as artificial syrups, so we included some tips to make this more concentrated if you want a stronger-tasting strawberry syrup.
Why you’ll love this recipe
This strawberry syrup is surprisingly easy to make and uses simple ingredients that are easy to find. It makes a great addition to drinks, such as matcha lattes, mocktails, and more.
Our syrup is beautifully and naturally colored with real strawberries, no artificial colors in it! This is a simple syrup, so it doesn’t have the fruit puree or solids in it (unless you decide to mix in some strawberry powder).
How to make homemade strawberry simple syrup
For the basic recipe, this strawberry simple syrup uses easily accessible ingredients for a delicious syrup that you can use for drinks or ice cream.
Here are the steps for making this recipe (this is just an overview, the full recipe is at the end of the post):
- Wash and quarter your strawberries and add them to a 2-quart saucepan. If your strawberries are small, just halve them.
- Add the sugar and lemon juice to the pan with the strawberries and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid begins to simmer.
- Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the fruit to be soft but still mostly maintain its shape and be mushy by the end of the 6 minutes of simmering.
- Remove the cooked strawberries from the heat and pour through a metal strainer. You can gently press the strawberries to help get the syrup out but don’t press the berries through the strainer. You want just the liquid/syrup, not the fruit puree.
- Save the leftover cooked fruit and add to your morning oatmeal and smoothies, or eat it topped with some dairy free whipped cream.
- Allow the syrup to cool completely. You can use it as-is or add strawberry extract for a stronger strawberry flavor (more on that below).
- Store the syrup in a glass or plastic container with a tight-fitting lid and keep it in the fridge (I used Mason clamp jars). This should last a couple of weeks in the fridge.
How to add extra strawberry flavor
Since this syrup is completely natural, the flavors are wonderful but won’t be quite as strong as an artificial strawberry syrup, so you may need to use more of it in drinks to get a robust strawberry flavor.
I like the flavor of this syrup by itself, but if you want to add extra strawberry flavor to this, you can add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of natural strawberry extract. We tested this with the McCormick strawberry extract.
You can also whisk in 1 Tablespoon of freeze-dried strawberry powder to add additional thickness and flavor to the syrup.
Another option is to make a double batch of this syrup and once it is strained and still hot, add it back to the pan to simmer over low heat for about 5-10 minutes more to thicken the syrup and concentrate the flavors.
Metric measurements for this recipe
We have an exciting first for our website in this recipe: I included metric measurements in the recipe card for the main recipe ingredients (I didn’t get metric measurements for the add-ins)!
Just click on the “metric” option in our recipe card for the metric measurements. These are the metric measurements I made of the ingredients for this recipe, so they are accurate.
I am going to try continue adding options for metric measurements to our new recipes when I remember to weigh everything during my recipe testing and final recipe writing.
Check out our other syrup recipes!
- Starbucks Copycat Apple Brown Sugar Syrup
- Homemade Gingerbread Latte Syrup
- Chai Spice Syrup and Tea Concentrate
Easy Homemade Strawberry Simple Syrup
Ingredients
- 16 ounces quartered fresh strawberries
- ½ cup unbleached sugar
- 3 Tablespoons water
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Optional add-ins for additional flavor:
Instructions
- Wash and quarter your strawberries and add them to a 2-quart saucepan. If your strawberries are small, just halve them.
- Add the sugar and lemon juice to the pan with the strawberries and heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid begins to simmer.
- Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the fruit to be soft but still mostly maintain its shape and be mushy by the end of the 6 minutes of simmering.
- Remove the cooked strawberries from the heat and pour through a metal strainer. You can gently press the strawberries to help get the syrup out, but don’t press the berries through the strainer. You want just the syrup, not puree.
- Use the cooked fruit to add to oatmeal, smoothies, etc.
- Allow the syrup to cool completely. You can use it as-is or add strawberry extract for a stronger strawberry flavor (more on that below).
- Store the syrup in a glass or plastic container with a tight-fitting lid and keep it in the fridge. This should last a couple of weeks in the fridge.
Concentrated syrup options:
- If you'd like additional flavor in this syrup, you can add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of natural strawberry extract. You can also whisk in 1 tablespoon of freeze-dried strawberry powder to help thicken the syrup and add some extra flavor. This is optional, however, and the syrup tastes great by itself.
- Another option is to double this batch and once you have strained out the syrup, return it back to the saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat for an additional 5-10 minutes to thicken the syrup and make it more concentrated.
Nutrition
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Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist