My wife was needing to make some room in the freezer and a bag of blueberries I picked last summer was blocking her efforts. Rather than toss them out I decided to make some blueberry syrup. I love it on pancakes and Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. After defrosting I found that, magically, I had the perfect amount for my recipe.

It took a little longer than I anticipated and I did deviate from the recipe as described below. The results are fine!!!

Step 2. Preparing the base syrup sugar water with the lemon zest. I used Meyer Lemons from my garden….maybe not perfect but I think it worked out well.
Hard to see but I had no luck after 25 minutes with getting the syrup up to 225 degrees F.
Added the prepared blueberry juice and went to plan B. Pulled out my Cajun burner and cranked it up…..hit 225 F very quickly.
Final result is a little over two cups of very sweet and very tasty Blueberry syrup. Sunday is ice cream day at the Decker house…..guess what I am having?

Blueberry Syrup

  • 1 1/2 pounds blueberries (5 cups)
  • 4 cups water
  • 2 cups sugar
  • Six 1-inch strips of lemon zest removed with a vegetable peeler
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions

  • Step 1 In a pot, combine the blueberries with 1 cup of the water. Crush the berries with a potato masher and bring to a simmer. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Strain the juice into a heatproof measuring cup, pressing hard on the solids. Discard the solids.
  • Step 2 Rinse out the pot. Add the sugar, lemon zest and the remaining 3 cups of water and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil the syrup over moderate heat until it registers 225° on a candy thermometer, about 20 minutes. Add the blueberry juice and lemon juice and boil over high heat for 1 minute. Let the syrup cool, then discard the lemon zest. Pour the syrup into just-cleaned bottles. Seal and refrigerate for up to 6 months.

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/perfect-blueberry-syrup

By Grace Parisi

August 2010

I modified step 2 and chose to add the extracted juice and brought both, the sugar water and juice, up to the final temperature. It seemed to work fine.

TTFN

Bishop