The weather is turning cooler and the drinks are getting darker. This means you need this homemade Demerara Syrup in your fridge. Demerara Syrup is a simple syrup made with Demerara sugar instead of white sugar for a richer flavor. It only takes a few minutes to make and uses 2 ingredients!
Fall & winter cocktails with brown alcohol seem to go hand in hand. These warm, inviting sipping drinks are generally stronger and are best sweetened with a simple syrup with richer flavor like this Demerara Syrup.
What is Demerara sugar? It's a cane sugar with a large grain and is pale amber in color. It has a slight toffee and caramel flavor and can replace brown sugar in many recipes.
Demarara Syrup tastes great in this Old Fashioned. Add a meat and cheese tray and happy hour (dinner) is ready!
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Why you should make Demerara Syrup
✔️ It's inexpensive. You can buy Demerara syrup at the store but since it is essentially sugar water, it is much less expensive to make your own at home.
✔️ The flavor can't be matched. The caramel and toffee flavor is a great complement to brown spirits making it the sweetener of choice for many bourbon drinks.
✔️ It has a good shelf life. Demerara syrup will stay fresh in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. The recipe is easy to scale to make as much or as little as you need.
Ingredients
This two ingredient syrup couldn't be simpler to make.
Ingredient Notes:
Demerara Sugar: This type of sugar is a must for this recipe. Find Demerara Sugar in the baking aisle at your local grocery store or online at Amazon.
Instructions
It only takes a few minutes to make this simple syrup at home.
Place demerara sugar in a small saucepan.
Add water to sugar.
Stir and heat over medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
Once sugar is completely dissolved, remove it from heat, cool it, and then store it in the refrigerator.
FAQs
Turbinado sugar is made from the first processing of sugar cane and has a higher molasses content than Demerara. Demerara sugar has more of a caramel/toffee flavor and turbinado has a molasses flavor. Both have large grains and make good substitutions for each other when the texture is needed.
Demerara syrup is made with Demerara sugar and simple syrup is made with white sugar. Demerara syrup has a richer flavor with caramel and toffee undertones while simple syrup is a plain sweetener without flavor. Both are easy to make at home and are great for cocktails.
Rich simple syrup has more sugar than water. Instead of using the traditional 1:1 ratio that most simple syrups use, a rich syrup calls for a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water. The result is a richer, sweeter syrup.
Now that you have some demerara sugar on hand, you will find many other ways it can be used. Sprinkle it on top of your blueberry muffins before baking to get a nice crunchy texture or stir it into plain oatmeal for a hint of sweetness. Many people also enjoy it in their coffee or tea.
Expert Tips for making Demarara Syrup
✘ Use Demerara sugar, not turbinado sugar. Both can be used to make simple syrup but the flavor profile will be different. Demerara sugar gives you a toffee flavor whereas turbinado will have more of a molasses flavor.
✘ Heat it thoroughly. Cook the syrup until all of the sugar is dissolved to get a smooth syrup.
✘ Refrigerate it. Demerara syrup will stay fresh for 2 weeks when stored properly in the refrigerator. We love to use a mason jar to store it.
More cocktail favorites
Now that you have some Demerara Syrup on hand, use it to make these other cocktail favorites.
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Recipe
Demerara Syrup
Ingredients
- 1 cup Demerara sugar
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Place sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir and heat until sugar is dissolved.1 cup Demerara sugar, 1 cup water
- Cool completely and store in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Notes
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Nutrition
Nutrition info not guaranteed to be accurate.
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