The temperature has been hovering pretty consistently right around 100F degrees the last few weeks. It's officially summer. I'm officially thirsty. Water is my drink of choice with a bit of coffee thrown in for good measure. I gave up soda pop about 10 years ago. Yay...I'm proud of that! If you haven't given it up yet, you should!
Yet...with the heat comes a craving for something refreshing and quenching.
A couple of years ago I picked up this really adorable little snow cone maker...
I hadn't ever unpacked it. I was waiting until the Sprouts were old enough to enjoy it. It was our turn to host monthly pizza night and I thought this might be a good time to unveil it. The Sprouts just turned 3 years old and it's really, really hot outside!
I started snooping around for some snow cone syrup. Sadly, everything I found was even worse than I could have imagined! Of course the usual HFCS and fake coloring were in everything available. But, even worse...some had really bizarre warnings that the ingredients weren't safe and made lab rats all weird and crazy. (That may or may not be completely accurate...although there really were weird warnings about the ingredients). There is no way I'm feeding this stuff to the Sprouts!
I decided I'd have to make my own syrup. Something with ingredients from my approved list. I put on my thinking cap and wondered the best way to make a simple syrup type of product that would be especially tasty and amazing.
Hubs and I dropped by our local farm stand to take a peek and see if we needed anything that wasn't growing in our square foot garden. We haven't built our boxes for strawberries yet or our future raspberry patch. Luckily, the farmer had just unloaded some organic raspberries! I happily purchased 2 containers of fresh raspberries. I decided that a lovely raspberry syrup would be just the ticket!
This was a complete experiment that went RIGHT! I gently washed the delicate raspberries and put them in a large cooking pot. I added 6 cups of filtered water and gently simmered them for about 35 minutes until they were soft and falling apart. I turned off the stove and let them cool for just a few minutes.
Mmmm...they smell really good while they simmer. I did moosh them up a bit after simmering to get all the tasty juice out of them. Then I poured it through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl. The remaining solids went into my kitchen compost bowl.
Then, I poured the vibrant red liquid back into the cooking pot. I added 3 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice and 2 cups of organic sugar.
Again...I brought it to a boil and then simmered it for about 15 minutes while stirring often. Usually a simple syrup recipe is one cup water to one cup sugar. I was hoping this would thicken into a syrup using more liquid than sugar. It did! It worked perfectly!
May I just say...it is unbelievably GOOD! The lemon just gives the raspberry a lovely fresh taste. This amount of sugar is not overly sweet but sweet enough to satisfy!
The little snow cone maker cranked out some awesome shaved ice. The Sprouts LOVED their snow cones. I felt okay about the ingredients. I question why we EVER stopped eating real food and started to eat fake sugar, colors and chemicals!!! Perplexing...
These simple ingredients created the absolute best snow cone syrup I have ever tasted. The color is beautiful and REAL!
It's thicky and drippy and delish! Of course it would be equally amazing made with blackberries or blueberries or strawberries. C'mon...just do it! Oh, the grown-ups at pizza night were equally impressed with the syrup! Actually...they thought it was AMAZING!
Keep the syrup in the fridge. I wouldn't keep it for more than a week...but let's be real...it's not going to last that long.
The day after pizza night a friend dropped by to help me make some exotic flavored vodkas! With yummy surprises from my garden. (I will talk about that at a later date) We indulged in a tart and tangy Italian soda! A shot of raspberry syrup topped off with sparkling water! I'm not lying when I say it's better than any soda pop you could buy...
I sincerely want you to try this! I want everyone to enjoy the pleasures of REAL food! I promise you won't be disappointed! Cheers...
