Healthy Alternatives to Pancake Syrup?

Maple syrup is more expensive but you use waaaay less than fructose syrup. I use maple syrup and a small bottle lasts us at least 6 months, and we eat waffles all the time.

Honey, fruit and whipped cream, a tiny amount of real maple syrup, my older actually likes his pancakes plain

My daughter likes frozen mixed berries on hers. I put a tiny bit of sugar on them and microwave it until it is warm and the juice from the fruit comes out.

Real maple syrup might be worth the extra cost. It not only has more concentrated flavor, but contains multiple antioxidants, lignans that have antibacterial, anti-cancer, and anti-diabetic properties, a compound called astibene which has a similar beneficial effect on cells as resveratrol, and flavonoids which have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer effects. It's actually one of the healthier sweeteners available.

I don't dump syrup over my pancakes, but just pour a spoonful onto the plate. I barely dip each bite as I eat it – the flavor is rich and sweet, but I'm actually using very little syrup.

Costco has huge bottles of pure maple syrup for a reasonable price. Trader Joe's has an agave/maple syrup that is cheaper than pure maple and doesn't have artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup.

Usually I'll just use a bit of honey on their French toast or pancakes.

I don't bring artificial sweeteners OR high fructose corn syrup into the house. Think it to be nasty stuff ;)

Apple butter-they make jars that are pure apples with no sugar, my son loves it. Sometimes I put a little honey on too for sweetness

I found this online!

Easy Homemade Pancake Syrup
This syrup takes just minutes to make and provides a healthier, low-cost alternative to high fructose corn syrup. It tastes amazingly like pure maple syrup.

•1 cup water
•2 cups white sugar
•1 teaspoon maple flavoring

1.Bring water to a boil.
2.Add sugar and maple flavoring and mix well.
3.Serve warm.
4.Store leftover syrup in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.

Mix a little honey in with some softened butter and spread the mixture on her pancakes and waffles. Honey and peanut butter is yummy too.

I'd get the pure maple syrup. It's worth it. :)

agave nectar
brown sugar
honey
cinnamon sugar
real maple syrup
jelly/jam

Enjoy!
J.

Maple syrup.
It goes a long way.
Unless the person is the type that likes to drench their pancakes in it.

Coconut syrup, is good too. That's what locals use here.
You can find it online, maybe in your local stores.

go maple! costco's is good and very reasonable.
:) khairete
S.

Look at it this way. Do you want to pay now or pay later? Pay for the expensive maple syrup now or pay for medical costs due to poor health from eating laboratory chemicals?
My kids eat pancakes WITHOUT syrup. It's about training their taste buds. We put a couple of really ripe frozen bananas plus a few tablespoons of honey in the batter and eat the pancake with nothing on top. It's mildly sweet but that's what my kids are used to. When we travel, they never touch the syrup that comes with the pancakes at the restaurant. "Too sweet!", they said.

I'd stay away from "Lite" at all costs, artificial sweetners are so bad for kids. I'd splurge on the real maple syrup. You can also make fruit purees or flavored butters for your pancakes.

my daughter likes to have her waffles and pancakes with applesauce on them.

I make pancakes with currants, and reduce the sugar in the recipe. They're so sweet, we just put butter on them. yum!

Sometimes we put mini cholate chips in the batter - no need for syrup at all (makes thing alot less messy) or use an all natual jelly or jam, just heat it up to make it pourable.

We also use pure maple syrup from trader joe's on our pancakes, but for our waffles we smear a layer of marscarpone cheese (italian sweet cheese also used in tiramisu) and then top it with a layer of blackberry jam. Delicious!

Pure maple syrup...pricey but worth it because you don't need much. My DS loves his pancakes with a bit of jam or preserves on it.
DD REFUSES to eat fake maple syrup at 3 yr old! She's her daddy's girl! LOL

We love jam on our pancackes.
Also, during berry season, we walk and pick our own berries and make our own syrup.
You can do the same with fresh or frozen berries from the store.
Boil the berries with sugar and pour over the pancakes. You can use a little lemon juice to cut the sweetness.
You can also use yogurt and roll up the pancakes kind of like crepes, sprinkle with a little powdered sugar.
Yummy.

applesauce or apple butter
jam (I make my own every year b/c we have two plum trees and all the fruit ripens at once!)
add chopped apples, raisins, and/or bananas to the pancakes to make them naturally sweeter (my favorite trick from when my girls were toddlers - slice banana into discs, dunk them in pancake batter and cook - you end up with perfect little finger-food sized fruit-filled pancakes! You can do this with apple slices too - in both cases the fruit gets a bit soft and sweeter as it's cooked inside the pancake)
And we use real maple syrup in moderate quantities too - I'd rather have a drop of real maple syrup than a pool of icky artificial stuff ;-).

My mom used to make brown sugar syrup- just brown sugar -melted. I think she might have added a Tbs of water, but not much more than that- and you only need a little since it's really sweet. My kids also like peanut butter or sliced fruit and whip cream. Maple syrup is also great- but you are right- it is really expensive!
~C.

super simple delicious homemade pancake syrup recipe:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar (some use 2 cups brown sugar)
1 cup water

bring to boil then turn it down and simmer for awhile. i usually start it when i start making the pancakes or waffles, and after it boils turn it down to simmer until we're ready to eat. this is the recipe mom, grandma, and great grandma have always used. "I" had the brianiac idea to add some maple flavoring...MMmmMmMMm!!! it is soooo good. (obviously i wouldn't call this "healthy" being pure sugar - but it has ZERO high fructose corn syrup! btw did you know there is a ketchup with none? i think it's hunts, or another name brand. says it right on the front of the bottle. tastes just the same to me, we get it) good luck!

I usually just put warmed Polaner All Fruit on my daughter's waffles, but once in a while I let her have pure Maple syrup. Instead of pouring it over the waffles though, I let her dip them. She only uses about a table spoon of syrup that way.
As others suggested, you can try Agave , molassas or honey too. I'm not sure they are much better. Your body still digests them as sugar, but they may be better than high fructose corn syrup.

Just wanted to have another shout out for the real stuff! I started using it years ago as well when I was trying to cut out HFCS. It is expensive, but oh it is yummy and so worth it! I agree with just using a little bit. People mentioned Costco and I also get the Target brand Archer Farms and it's good and pretty reasonably priced as well. It's going on 4 or 5 years that I've refused to buy anything with HFCS in it and you'll be happy to know that many of the major brands have changed their ways and are now using real sugar. I know that some people still argue that your body processes it the same way but I just don't believe it. There have been other studies to argue it, so good for you!

I second agave nectar. Get the dark one, my daughter is soon to be 4 and still has no idea. I use it all the time in her herbal tea, oatmeal, etc. And you only need the smallest amount.

you can usually find a good maple syrup pretty cheap and you dont need a whole lot of it either

Log Cabin brand syrup doesn't have high fructose corn syrup and is not 'lite' or expensive.

Costco & Trader Joes have good prices for real Maple Syrup. You don't need as much of it as you end up using of the fake stuff so it lasts longer than a bottle of the fake stuff.
We switched some time ago and so glad we did! It tastes so much better than the fake stuff.
Sometimes we'll get Nutella and that's pretty tasty too.

Why does she need syrup at all? If you want a all natural alternative you can make your own. one part sugar to one part water and boil. It is called a "simple syrup" and the longer you biol the water the thicker the syrup. As you can guess, it is high is sugar.

We use peanut butter and honey (4 tablespoons of BP and 1 teaspoon of honey) mixed together on our pancakes.

We use only real maple syrup on pancakes and love to eat organic yogurt on waffles. I cut the waffles in strips for my son & he dunks them into the yogurt. Very yummy & waaayyy healthier!

We use pure maple syrup or dip waffels in organic applesauce with some cinnamon added or sometimes I smash up fruit such as blueberries and then add a little syrup or applesauce and heat it in the micro. Strawberries smashed with a little orange juice and honey added to them is yummy, too! When we use syrup, we dip, so we use less. Good Question!

If you have a Trader Joe's store near you they have lower prices on real maple syrup. You could also try honey, molasses or jam. It is pretty easy to make a fruit topping with a bag of frozen fruit like raspberries or blueberries and add a little sugar and corn starch to thicken it. Most fruit pie filling recipes can be easily adapted (use a bit less thickener). I use Joy of Cooking but there are now countless cooking sites out there.

butter cinnamon and sugar or cooked apples with cinnamon

My suggestions are all-fruit jelly or plain yogurt mixed with a little pancake syrup to give it some flavor. I think artificial sweeteners should absolutely be avoided.

You can make your own by simmering fruit and fruit juice--blueberries strawberries or peaches work well and then adding a mix of constarch and water mix to thicken it. Tasty and naturally sweet

Yep, going healthy is more expensive in the short run. But think of all the things you spend money on so your daughter can grow and develop - good shoes, good school, good piano teacher, good soccer team (and the driving to all the activities). A few extra dollars on real maple syrup... Kids tend to be over scheduled anyways - maybe cut out an activity to free up the funds for the real thing - natural peanut butter (just peanuts - no sugar or hydrogenated veg. oil) and maple syrup.

I had a friend that had no idea that Aunt Jemima wasn't real syrup! She thought that was actual maple syrup. I had to show her the label where it has all the nasty ingredients and 'maple flavor syrup', and then show her what we use (100% pure maple syrup made locally). One glass container is about $8, but it lasts for months and months!

Get the store brand maple syrup - it is more expensive than the high fructos, but still cheaper and better for you. Fresh fruit or real fruit jam also is good.

I started using the diabetes syrup - Carey's - when I had gestational diabetes. I like the flavor more now - the regular stuff is just TOO sweet.

Just splurge on real maple syrup...we also buy ours at Trader Joe and it's very reasonable. It's naturally sweet too. Also we don't drown our kids' pancakes in it so it lasts a long time. One other great product at TJ is the dried wild blueberries - throw a handful in your pancake batter with about a teaspoon or two of vanilla and they make amazing pancakes! The tastier the pancakes, the less syrup you really have to use. :)

Mapleline is a maple flavor you add to a simple surgar syrup. The recipe is on the box. It's in the same aisle as the spices.

We use the real maple syrup

I don't like syrup (because it is so sticky and messy) or honey, so I didn't give it to my kids. Dad does sometimes. I put butter on their pancakes/waffles/french toask and then sprinkle cinnamon & sugar on top. Sometimes they tell their dad they don't want syrup, they want the cinnamon & sugar.

I would go with Agave nectars - they are totally natural and come in different flavors. You just have to play with the amounts because you don't need much of it. Good for cooking and sweetening teas. :-) Have fun!

We use real maple syrup. Yes it's more expensive, but well worth it.

I'd go with pure maple, blue agave, or local honey

Log Cabin makes a no HFCS syrup that I will get once in a while. IMO artificial sweeteners are just as bad as HFCS so avoid them like the plague as well. If we aren't using local honey, my homemade jams or applesauces, blackstrap molasses, or a homemade fruit syrup, we use the real maple syrup. It may be expensive but 1 bottle will last my family of 6 for at least a month. We just drizzle some on the pancakes/waffles. It took my family a long time to not drown our stuff in the syrup but we finally have. If they're overly dry, I try to put a little extra butter on them or get out the applesauce instead of adding extra syrup. You can also make a simple syrup and add flavorings too it but I don't care for how much sugar is in it so I rarely make it, less than once a year. Every once in a while, I buy maple syrup granules in the bulk section of my local Co-Op. You just add water to reconstitute them and voila, syrup. It's not quite as thick as the fresh stuff but it's a good sub and much cheaper than buying real maple syrup if you budget just won't let you. I always keep some on hand in case I forgot to buy syrup or too add to some of my recipes.

Honey. You can microwave it for a few seconds to give it the consistency of syrup.